IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


I  I.I 
1.25 


Ui  W2.B 


2.5 
2.2 


i 


1.8 


1.4 


VI 


%. 


/^ 


n 


^Ji 


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Photographic 
_,Sciences 
Corporalion 


33  A/FST  MAIN  STREET 

\V<:BSTER,N.Y.  14S80 

{7\6)  S72-4S13 


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) 


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,4> 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHIVI/ICIVIH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


■:J 


\ 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/I^otes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


0 


D 
D 


D 


D 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couvertura  de  couleur 


I      I    Covers  damaged/ 


Couverture  endommagde 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaur^e  et/ou  peilicuide 

Cover  title  missing/ 

Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps/ 

Cartes  gdographiques  en  couleur 

Coloured  inic  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  biaclt)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bieue  ou  noire) 

Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
Relid  avec  d'autres  documents 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  ro  liui-e  serrde  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  intdrieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajout^es 
lors  d'une  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  Atait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  6X6  filmdes. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  suppi^mentaires: 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  ie  meilleur  exempiaire 
qu'il  lui  a  6t6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exempiaire  qui  sont  peut-dtre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  methods  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiquds  ci-dessous. 


D 
D 
D 
E 
D 
0 
D 
D 
D 
D 


Coloured  pages/ 
Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommag^es 

Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Pages  restaurdes  et/ou  pelliculdea 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 
Pages  d^coior^es,  tachetdf  s  ou  piqu6es 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  d6t)>ch6es 

Showthrough/ 
Transparence 

Quality  of  print  varies/ 
Quaiit^  indgale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  material/ 
Comprend  du  matiriei  suppiimentaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refiimed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totatement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuiliet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  6t6  film^es  d  nouveau  de  fapon  d 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


Thisi 
Cede 

10X 

tem  i 
icum 

sfiln 
ent  e 

ned  { 
stfil 

itthfl 

m6  a 

14X 

1  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

u  taux  de  reduction  indiquA  ci-dessous 

18X                            22X 

20X 

■■?■  ' 

30X 

y 

1 

1 

12X 

16X 

20X 

24X 

28X 

32X 

1 

The  copy  filmed  here  hat  been  reproduced  thanks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

Library  of  i!ie  Public 
Archives  of  Canada 

The  Images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
rio  slble  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
fif  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
n'iimlng  contract  specifications. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  flUried 
beginning  with  the  f  rorit  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  Illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  Impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  — »>  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whicnever  applies. 


L'exemplaire  fllmA  fut  reprodult  grAce  i  la 
gAnArosltA  de: 

La  bibliothdque  des  Archives 
publlques  du  Canada 

Las  images  suivantes  ont  6t6  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  netteti  de  rexempioire  fiimA,  et  en 
conformity  avec  las  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 

Ler  exempiaires  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  ImprimAe  sont  fiimte  en  commenpant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'Impression  ou  d'iiiustratlon,  solt  par  le  second 
plat,  selon  le  cas.  Tous  las  autres  exempiaires 
originaux  sont  filmte  en  commenpant  par  la 
premlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'Impression  ou  d'iiiustratlon  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaftra  sur  la 
dernlAre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbols  -^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE  ",  le 
symbols  V  signifie  "FIN". 


Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  In  the  upper  left  hend  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc..  peuvent  dtre 
filmte  d  des  taux  de  reduction  diff^rents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  fitre 
reprodult  en  un  seui  clichA.  ii  est  fiim6  A  partir 
de  i'angle  8up6rieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite. 
et  de  haut  en  has.  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  nicessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
lllustrent  la  m6thode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

T 


;if 


PASTORAL    LETTER 


FOB 


THE   LENT  OF    M.DCCC.LI. 


ADDHESSED 


ro  THK  (]LKRGY  AND  LAITY  OF  THE  DIOCESE  OF  HALIFAX 


BT 


THE  RIGHT  REVEREND  DR.  WALSH, 

BISHOP   OF   HALIFAX. 


TO    WHICH   13    ADDBD 


A  LETTER  ON  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC'  EPISCOPAL  OATH, 

IN  REFUTATION  OF  THE  INJURIOUS  AND  UNFOUNDED 
ASSERTIONS  OF  THE  REV.  DR.  GUMMING. 

Of  the  Scotch  Presbytery  in  London, 

BY        THE        SAME. 


I  . 


PASTORAL    LETTER 


K  O  R 


THE  LENT  OF    M.DCCC.LI. 


ADDRESSED 


TO  THE  CLERGY  AND  LAITY  OF  THE  DIOCESE  OF  HALIFAX. 


BY 


THE  RIGHT  REVEREND  l^R.  WALSH, 

BISHOP  OF  HALIFAX. 


TO  WIIICII  18  ADDBD 


b 


A  LETTER  ON  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  EPISCOPAL  OATH, 

IN  REFUTATION  OF  THE  INJURIOUS  AND  UNFOUNDED 
ASSERTIONS  OF  THE  REV.  DR.  CUMSIING, 
Of  the  Scotch  Presbytery  in  London, 


Wtitf,  "■^■?vjf 


BY        THE        SAME. 


Istos  crtro  atroces  quondam  Inimicos  nostros,  pacem  ct  quictem  nostram  variis  riolentianim  et  in- 
Bidiannn^'eneribusgraviter  infestaiitcs,  si  sic  contemncrciuua  ot  tulerikruiniis,  ut  nihil  oinnino  qiiud 
ad  eos  terrondos  ac  corrigcndos  valere  i)nsset,  cxcogitaretur  et  aKitarctar  a  nobii<,  vere  malum  pro 
malo  reddfjremus.  Non  omnia  qui  parcit,  amicus  est ;  noc  omnia  qui  verberat  inimicus :  ot  melius 
est  cum  severitato  dilii^ere,  quam  cum  lenitato  decii>crt'.  Qui  phrcneticum  ligat,  et  qui  letliarf^icum 
excitat,  ambobus  molestus,  ambos  aroat.    S.  August.  Kp.  48.  Vincent. 

Nunc  igitur  si  Nominis  odium  est,  quia  nominum  rcatiis?  Quae  accusntio  vncabulorum,  nisi  s' 
aut  barbarum  sonat  aliqua  vox  Nominis,  3Ut  maledicum  aut  impudicum.  Oditur  ergo  in  liomi  - 
nibus  innocuis  etiam  nomcn  innocuum.  .  .  .  O  iropito  voces,  U  Sacriloga  convicia,  iufrenditu, 
iiispumate !     Tertull.    Jlpol.  adv.  Oentcs. 


i^y  *  >  *  ,  t  *-j^iA 


NEW- YORK: 
EDWARD  DUNIGAN   &.   BROTHER,    151   FULTON-STREET. 


M.DCCC.LI. 


/ 


Atque  adco  quasi  pr^favus  h.c  od  suggil.andam  odii  crga  noB  public!  iniquiU^tom,  Jam  do  causa 
Innocenti^  conBistam, nee  tantum  refutabo,  qua.  nobis  objiciunlur,  sed  ctiam  Inipsos  rctorqucbo 

qui  objiciunt.  Tert.  Jipol.  ^^^ 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


kusa 
icbo 


WILLIAM,    BY  THE  GRACE   OF   GOD   AND  THE   FAVOUR  OF   THE 
APOSTOLIC  SEE,  BISHOP  OF  HALIFAX. 

To  the  Clergy  and  Laity  of  the  Diocese  of  Halifax : 

Dearly  Beloved  Brethren, — 

It  is  the  duty  of  those  "whom  the  Holy  Ghost  has 
appointed  Bishops  to  rule  the  Church  of  God"  (1)  to 
watch,  with  unceasing  solicitude,  over  that  portion  of 
the  flock  of  Christ  which  is  committed  to  their  care, 
and  to  contribute,  both  by  word  and  example,  to  the 
salvation  of  those  precious  souls,  for  which  they  will 
have  to  render  an  account,  one  day,  to  the  Sovereign 
Judge  of  the  living  and  the  dead.  This  grave,  and  formi- 
dable obligation,  always  present  to  our  mind,  presses  up- 
on us  with  peculiar  force,  at  a  time  like  this,  when  we 
arc  about  to  commence,  with  the  universal  Church,  that 
Holy  Season  of  Penance  and  Prayer  which  will  "  cleanse 
our  consciences  from  dead  works  to  serve  the  hving  God  " 
(2)  and  purify  our  souls  for  the  worthy  celebration  of 
the  greatest  of  all  Christian  Festivals,  the  Glorious  Re- 
surrection from  the  tomb  of  Our  Lord  and  Saviour. 
The  hallowed  season  of  mercy  is  now  approaching — 
the  days  of  salvation  are  at  hand — the  gracious  time  of 
forgiveness  is  nigh — our  redemption  is  nearer  than  we 
believed — and  another  opportunity  is  happily  afforded 
us,  of  returning  to  the  bosom  of  our  offended  Father, 
and  of  making  our  peace  with  Heaven.  At  a  moment 
so  critical  for  the  welfare  of  his  flock,  if  the  Pastor  were 

(1)  Acts  X.  28.     (2)  Heb.  ix.  14. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


silent,  sliould  he  not  apprehend  the  fearful  judgments  pro- 
nounced against  the  unfaithful  shepherds  of  Israel,  wliom 
the  Lord  reproached  by  the  mouth  of  the  Prophet  Ezc- 

chiel  (3)  : — "  Wo  to  the  shepherds  of  Israel Should 

not  the  flocks  be  fed  by  the  shepherds  ?  But  my  flock 
you  did  not  feed.  The  weak  you  liavc  not  strengthened, 
and  that  which  was  sick  you  have  not  healed  :  that  which 
was  broken  you  have  not  bound  up,  and  that  which  was 
driven  away  you  have  not  brought  again ;  neither  have 
you  sought  that  which  was  lost."  Bear  with  us,  there- 
fore, Dearly  Beloved  Brethren,  whilst  urged  by  the 
charity  of  Christ,  and  alarmed  for  your  salvation  as  well 
as  our  own,  we  lift  up  our  voice  "as  a  trumpet"  to  pro- 
claim the  enormity  of  sin,  the  insecurity  of  life,  the  cer- 
tainty of  Judgment,  the  horrible  punishments  of  the 
sinner  who  "  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  Hving  God,"  and 
the  consequent  necessity  of  speedy  and  effectual  Repen- 
tance. In  the  discharge  of  our  pastoral  duty,  we  desire, 
with  our  whole  heart,  to  feed  the  hungry,  to  strengthen 
the  weak,  to  heal  the  sick,  to  bind  up  the  broken,  to 
bring  back  again  that  which  the  enemy  hath  driven 
away,  and  to  seek  after  the  sheep  that  is  lost.  Relying 
not  on  our  own  weakness,  but  fortified  by  the  divine 
promises  of  Him,  whose  unworthy  Representative  we 
are,  and  who  exhorts  you  through  our  humble  voice,  we 
call  upon  you,  in  the  name  and  authority  of  Jesus  Christ, 
your  future  Judge,  "  to  put  off*  the  old  man  with  all  his 
acts,  and  be  clothed  with  the  new ; "  to  cast  oflf  the 
works  of  darkness  and  put  on  the  '  armour  of  light ; '  to 
apply  *the  axe  to  the  root'  of  your  vicious  inclinations; 
to  *  bring  forth  fruits  worthy  of  penance  ; '  to  abandon 
*  the  husks  of  swine '  and  return  to  the  delicious  plenty 
of  your  Father's  house  ;  to  feed  your  hungry  souls  with 
the  'word  of  life'  and  the  sacrament  of  love,  so  that 
your  weakness  may  be  removed,  your  diseases  healed, 
your  broken  hearts  bound  up,  and  your  souls  again  estab- 

(3)  xxxiv.  2.  4.  ' 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


5 


! 


lishcd  in  all  the  security  of  that  blessed  peace,  w  hich  ia 
the  foretaste  of  heaven.  Prepare  yourselves,  without 
delay,  for  the  *  acceptable  time,'  and  by  a  sincere  con- 
version to  the  Lord  your  God,  *in  fasting,  and  in  weep- 
ing, and  in  mourning,'  (1)  give  joy  to  the  Angels  in 
heaven,  and  afford  the  most  pr(;cious  of  all  consolations 
to  the  hearts  of  those  on  earth,  who  labour  and  pray  for 
your  salvation. 

The  Great  Fast  of  Forty  Days,  upon  which  we  are 
about  to  enter,  is  *of  divine  authority,  and  not  of  human 
invention.'  (5)  It  has  received  the  solemn  sanction  of 
the  Holy  Apostles,  and  the  first  heralds  of  the  Gospel. 

(6)  It  lias  been  recommended  and  proclaimed,  as  a 
general  law  of  the  Church,  in  every  age  from  the  Apos- 
tolic times,  and  in  every  country  which  has  received  the 
Faith  of  Christ.  Fasting,  mortification,  and  penance,  at 
all  times  salutary,  at  every  season  an  assured  remedy, 
and  in  many  instances  prescribed  by  the  Divine  LaWj  it- 
self, as  the  necessary  weapons  of  victory  in  the  great 
Christian  warfare,  are  now  commanded  by  the  Church 
under  the  grievous  penalties  of  disobedience.  To  fast 
on  other  days  may  be  a  remedy,  an  atonement,  and  a 
preventative  of  sin  ;  not  to  fast  in  Lent,  would  be  itself 
a  crime  which  would  deserve  the  severest  punishment. 

(7)  The  imperative  duty  of  mortification  so  often  neg- 
lected when  we  arc  left  to  our  own  decision,  can  now  no 
longer  be  evaded.  The  Church  compels  us,  by  a  happy 
necessity,  to  atone  for  our  former  negligence,  to  repair 
the  consequences  of  ovu*  past  sins,  to  crucify  our  flesh 
w^ith  all  its  vices  and  concupiscences,  and,  in  that  morti- 
fied and  guilty  flesh,  to  '  fill  up  those  things  which  are 

(4)  Joel  ii.  (5)  Quadnvginta  diebus  jojunamus,  nou  humana  invcntio,  sed 
iiuctoritas  divina  est. — St.  Peter  Chrysolog.  Sem  11. 

(6)  Congregati  (Apostoli)  sanxcrunt  quadraginta  dies  jejunii. — S.  Chry- 
sostom  Sem.  de  Jrjunio. 

(7)  Aliis  diebus  jejunarc  remedium,  in  quadragcsima  non  jejunare  peccatum ; 
alio  tempore  qui  jejunal  accipiet  indulgentiam,  isto  qui  non  jejunal,  senliet 
pffinam. — S.  Augustine  Serm.  171  rfe  Divcrsis. 


f) 


PASTORAL  LKTTEK. 


wanting  of  the  passion  of  Christ'  (8).     Wc  arc  no 
longer  loft  to  our  own  discretion.     Tho  Churcli,  tlic  in- 
terpreter of  tlic  Divine  Justice,  takes  into  her  own  ina- 
ternjil  hands,  as  it  wens  the  avenging  scourge,  and  chas- 
tens us  for  our  sins  ;  whilst  at  the  same  time  she  com- 
mends to  our  wavering  hps  thnt  painful,  but  salutary 
remedy,  that  unfailing  antidote,  that  heavenly  potion, 
composed  of 'the  bitternesses'  of  our  Lord's  Passion, 
which,  if  left  to  ourselves,  there  is  too  much  reason  to 
fear,  wo  would  reject  with  aversion.     Now,  she  calls  up- 
on us,  in  virtue  of  our  allegiance  to  her  Divine  Founder, 
to  consecrate  the  first-fruits,  tho  tithe  of  the  year,  to 
God  (9)  ;  and  as  we  owe  all  our  years  to  *  the  king  of 
ages  innnortal  and  invisible,'  to  dedicate  the  tenth  of 
this  year,  in  a  more  solenm  manner,  to  Him,  for  whom, 
and  in  whom,  all  things  live.'  (10)  And,  as  the  principal 
object  of  the  Lenten  Fast  is  the  destruction  of  sin,  and 
the  purification  of  the  heart,  so.  Dearly  Beloved  Breth- 
ren, whilst  you  diminish  your  corporal  food,  abstain  from 
the  iniquities  of  the  world,  and  '  from  carnal  desires 
which  war  against  the  soul'  (M).     This  is  the  great, 
and  perfect  Fast,  which  will  fmd  favour  in  tho  sight  of 
heaven  (12).    This  is  the  Fast,  which  will  heal  all  dis- 
eases, banish  all  demons,  expel  evil  thoughts,  and  create 
within  you  a  clean  heart  (L^-     ^"^^^  what  will   it  profit 
you  to  become  pale  from  fasting,  if  you  be  livid  from 
hatred  or  from  envy  ?    Of  what  avail,  to  abstain  from 
flesh  whicli  was  created  for  food,  if  by  calumny  and  de- 
traction you  tear  asunder  the  limbs  of  your  brethren 
whom  you  are  commanded  to  love  ?     Why  torture  the 
l)ody  with  the  pangs  of  hunger,  if  you  shamefully  pander 

(8)  Colos.  i.  21.  (0)  Quasi  anni  nostri  dccimas  Deo  damus. — S.  Gregor. 
Mag.  Horn.  10  in  Evang.     (10)  Tob.  xii.  10.     Acts  xvii.  28. 

(11)  1  Pet.  ii.  11.  (12)  Jcjunium  niairnum  ct  generate  est  abstinere  ab 
iniquitatibus  saouli,  q  >d  est  pcrfectum  jcjunium. — S.  Aug.  Lib.  de  Eccl 
Dogm.  Tract  17  t>t  Junanncm- 

(13)  Videa  quid  facial  Jejujuniuin.  Morbos  sanat,  damones  fugat.  pravas 
r!ogitationes  expellit,cor  mundum  efficit. — S.  Atfianasius  Lib,  2.  de  Virg. 


PASTORAL  LKTTER. 


} 


to  its  HoiiHual  desires/  (14)  The  Fn.st  wliicli  the  Lord 
has  clioscn,  and  which  alone  will  be  Jicccptable  to  Ilini 

is  to  "1.00SK  THE  HANDS  oi'  wicKKDNKss to  deal  youF 

bread  to  the  huiij^ry,  and  to  brin;r  the;  needy  and  the 
harbourlcss  into  your  house ;  when  you  shall  sec  one 
naked  to  cover  him,  and  to  despise  not  your  own  flesh. 
Then  shall  your  light  !)reak  forth  as  the  niornin*^,  and 
your  health  shall  speedily  arise,  and  your  justice  shall 
go  before  your  face,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall 
gather  you  up.  Then  you  shall  call,  and  the  Lord  will 
hear;  then  you  shall  cry,  and  He  will  say: — *IIerc  1 
am.'  (15) 

Commence,  therefore.  Dearly  Beloved  brethren,  this 
Quadragesimal  Fast  by  an  entire  and  s  lemn  renuncia- 
tion of  sin.  Avoid  its  dangerous  occasions,  and  repair 
its  destructive  eflects.  Emancipate  yourselves,  without 
dela)"^,  from  the  bondage  of  Satan,  and  break  asunder  the? 
chains  of  death.  Let  no  sacrifice  bo  considered  too  great, 
.vhcre  your  inmiortal  souls  are  concerned.  Cut  otf  the 
hand,  pluck  out  the  eye,  remove  the  beam,  which  are 
occasions  of  sin  to  yourselves,  and  of  scandal  to  your 
neighbour.  Delay  not  to  be  converted  to  the  JiOrd. 
Begin  now  in  earnest,  as  if  hitherto  you  had  made  no 
progress  in  the  service  of  God.  Let  *this  change'  b<^ 
the  mighty  work  *  of  the  right  hand  of  the  Most  High,' 
(16)  so  that  each  one  may  be  able  to  cry  oi'  in  grati- 
tude and  delight,  to  his  Father  who  is  in  Heaven : '  Thou 
hast  broken  my  chains,  O  Lord !  To  thee  I  will  sacri- 
fice a  victim  of  praise '  (17) — that '  acceptable  sacrifice 
of  justice'  (18)  which  the  penitent  sinner  olfcrs  to  God 
in  the  punishment  which  he  inflicts  upon  himself  for  his 
ingratitude  to  the  best  of  Fathers  (19). 

(14)  Quid  prodest  pallidum  esae  jcjunio,  si  odio,  et  invidia  livcscaa?  Quid 
prodest  abstinere  a  carnibus  ad  edcndum  crcatis,  et  malignis  obtrectationibus 
fratrum  membra  lacerare  1  Cur  corpus  fame  discrucias,  cui  turpiter  peccando 
blandiris  1 — S.  August.  Lib.  de  Eccl.  Dogmat 

(15)  Isaias  Iviii.  0.9.  (16)  Ps.  Ixxvi.  11.  (17)  Ps.  cxv.  110.  (18)  Ps.  1.  21. 
r  (19) '  Sacrificium  justitse'  fit  per  Poenitentiam  cum  peocator  seipsum  puniens, 
mactat  Deo. — S.  Aug.  in  Ps.  50. 


f' 


8 


PASTORAL  LETTER 


Fast,  therefore,  because  you  have  sinned ;  fast  that 
you  may  not  sin  again ;  fast  that  all  your  petitions  may 
be  heard  before  the  throne  of  mercy,  and  that  the  Divine 
*  Ear'  jnay  *  listen  to  the  preparation  of  your  heart'.  (20) 

Having  explained  them  on  former  similar  occasions, 
we  deem  it  unnecessary  at  present  to  descant  at  length 
on  the  advantages  of  Holy  Fasting,  by  which,  as  the 
Church  herself  tells  us,  our  vices  are  subdued,  our  minds 
lifted  up  from  earth  to  heaven,  our  souls  adorned  with 
virtue,  and  enriched  with  its  glorious  rewards  {"21),  Let 
it  suffice  to  say,  in  the  language  of  one  of  the  Fathers, 
who,  both  by  word  and  example,  most  eloquently  en- 
forced the  salutary  doctrines  of  penance  : — 'By  fasting 
legislators  are  made  wise.  Fasting  is  the  best  guardian 
of  the  soul,  the  secure  companion  of  the  body,  the  ar- 
mour and  support  of  the  strong,  the  training  exercise  of 
him  who  wrestles  in  the  struggle  for  salvation.  Fasting 
banishes  temptations,  promotes  piety,  dwells  with  sobri- 
ety, and  produces  temperance.  It  is  strength  in  war,  and 
repose  in  peace.  Fasting  sanctifies  the  Nazarean,  and 
elevates  the  Priest  to  perfection ;  for  neither  is  it  law- 
ful, without  fasting,  to  approach  the  Sacrifice  in  that 
m}  Stic  and  true  adoration  of  God  which  we  now  perform, 
nor  was  it  allowed  in  the  figurative  Sacrifices  of  the  an- 
cient law  (22.) 

Amongst  the  spiritual  and  corporal  works  of  mercy 
which  should  accompany  your  Fasting,  to  make  it  like 
unto  that  Fast  which  the  Lord  himself  hath  chosen,  we 
take  the  present  opportunity  of  commending  to  your 
charitable  zeal,  and  fervent  prayers,  the  Great  and  God- 

(20)  Ps.x.  17.  (21)  Qui  corporal!  jejunio  vitia  comptimis,  menlemele" 
vas,  virtutem  largiris  et  praemia.    Prccf.  quadrag. 

22)  J(>junium  legislatores  sapientes  facit :  animse  optima  custodia,  corporis 
socius  securus,  fortibiis  viris  munimentum  et  arma :  athletis  et  certantibus  exer- 
citatio.  Hoc  prsetereatentationes  propulsat,  ad  pietutem  armat,  cum  sobrietate 
habitat,  tcmperantise  opifex  est:  in  bellis  fortitudinem  aflTert,  In  pace  quietem 
docet :  Nazaraeum  sanctificat,  sacerdotem  perficit;  neque  e'\m  Us  est  sine 
jejunio  sac rificiumattingere,  non  solum  in  mysticanunc,  et  ver.»  Vu  adoratione, 
sed  ncc  in  ilia,  in  qua  sacrificiura  secundum  legem  in  figura  offerebatur. — 
S.  Basil.  Homil.  1 .  de  jejunio. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


9 


IS, 

th 
le 


like  Work  of  that  most  useful  and  meritorious  Associa- 
tion FOR  THE  Propagation  of  the  Catholic  Faith. 

It  is  the  glory  of  the  present  age  to  have  formed  an 
Institution  which  seems  destmed  to  extend  the  Kingdom 
of  God  to  the  uttermost  boundaries  of  tiie  earth.  Now, 
to  co-operate  with  the  Church  in  the  salvation  of  those 
precious  souls  for  which  Christ  died,  is  one  of  the  most 
noble  and  meritorious  duties  which  a  Christian  can  per- 
form. Cheerful  alms,  and  fervent  prayers,  are  the  arms 
of  this  heavenly  warfare.  All  the  soldiers  of  Christ  are 
therefore  qualified  to  engage  in  the  conflict  with  the 
powers  of  darkness.  The  smallest  mite  is  useml,  the 
humblest  prayer  is  efficacious  in  promoting  the  success 
of  the  great  cause,  and  all  the  faithful  members  of  Christ 
are  knit  together  in  this  bond  of  love.  The  fervent 
Missionary  makes  the  sacrifice  of  his  country  and  kin- 
dred, and  devotes  himself  to  a  life  of  privation,  suffering, 
and  toil.  He  braves  the  terrors  of  death,  and  the  long, 
lingering  martyrdom  of  persecution,  in  order  to  plant  the 
standard  of  the  Cross  in  benighted  lands,  to  make  their 
*  desert  as  a  place  of  pleasure,  and  their  wilderness  as 
the  garden  of  the  Lord*  (23). 

Through  the  assistance  and  prayers  of  the  Asso- 
ciation FOR  THE  Propagation  of  the  Faith,  the  Ado- 
rable name  of  Jesus  has  been  announced  in  every  part  of 
the  earth,  and  the  voice  of  His  Apostolic  Ministers  has 
gone  forth  into  the  whole  world.  Since  the  foundation 
of  this  great  Society,  it  has,  under  the  Sanction  of  the 
Holy  See,  sent  forth,  and  supported,  innumerable  zealouf^ 
Missionaries  to  '  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature'. 
And  when  v,c  consider  the  immense  number  of  infidels 
on  the  earth,  the  deplorable  ignorance  in  which  they  live, 
their  dreadful  crimes,  and  abominable  superstitions, 
togetiier  with  the  favourable  dispositions  of  many  to 
receive  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  we  cannot  but  feel  tlic 
most  lively  interest  in  their  behalf.    When  we  reflect 


(23)  Isai.  li.  3. 


10 


PASTORAL  LETTER 


'4f 


that  our  own  ancestors  were  once  *  children  of  wrath' 
and  plunged  in  the  same  ignorance  and  barbarism  as  se- 
veral Pagan  nations  of  the  presciit  day,  and  that  we  owe 
the  gift  of  Faith  to  the  spontaneous  mercy  of  God,  and 
the  heavenly  zeal  with  which  he  inflamed  our  first  Mis- 
sionaries, should  not  our  gratitude  be  unbounded,  and 
should  we  not  seek  by  every  means  in  our  power,  to  extend 
the  same  blessings  to  the  whole  world  ?  We  justly  pride 
ourselves  on  belonging  to  the  Only  True  Church  on  earth, 
and  professing  *  the  Faith  once  delivered  to  the  Saints.' 
But,  let  us  look  at  our  separated  brethren  of  various  de- 
nominations, and  behold  the  unceasing  energies,  the 
countless  millions,  which  they  expend  in  their  attempts 
to  difluse  their  erroneous  doctrines.  Our  cheeks  must 
be  mantled  with  blushes,  when  wc  look  upon  their  mis- 
directed zeal,  and  our  ungrateful  apathy.  Shall  we  be 
less  eager  to  make  known  the  truths  of  salvation,  than 
they  are  to  propagate  error  ?  We  are  not  called  upon 
to  sacrifice  our  property,  to  relinquish  our  occupations, 
to  renounce  our  kindred,  or  to  abandon  our  country. 
We  are  not  summoned  to  exile,  imprisonment,  or  death. 
We  are  not  invited  to  endure  the  tortures  of  the  scourge, 
nor  the  deadly  bitterness  of  the  sword  for  the  faith  of 
Christ.  But,  if  our  blood  do  not  flow  in  the  sacred  cause, 
shall  not  even  a  small  portion  of  our  miserable  pelf  be 
poured  out,  to  assist  the  holy  confessors  and  martyrs  of 
our  religion,  who  are,  at  this  moment,  braving  every 
danger,  enduring  every  fatigue,  and  suflfering  even  the 
most  cruel  torments,  for  the  love  of  their  neighbour  and 
their  God  ? 

The  institution  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith,  im- 
plores, in  addition  to  our  prayers,  but  one  half-penny 
per  week,  for  this  glorious,  this  God-like  work.  The 
Almighty  alone  can  tell  the  incalculable  benefits  which 
it  has  already  produced,  and  the  many  souls,  both  of  in- 
fants baptized,  and  of  adults  converted,  for  whom  it  has 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


11 


secured  the  bliss  of  Heaven.  For,  do  we  not  behold  in 
these  our  times,  the  enlargement  of  Christ's  spiritual 
Kingdom,  the  extension  ofllis  Church  on  earth,  the  ful- 
filment of  His  gracious  promises  in  behalf  of  the  Gen- 
tiles ? —  "  I  come  that  I  may  gather  them  together  with 
all  nations  and  tongues :  and  they  shall  come  and  shall 
sec  my  glory.  And  I  will  set  a  sign  among  them,  and  I 
will  send  of  them  that  shall  be  saved,  to  the  Gentiles  into 
the  sea,  into  Africa  and  Lydia,  into  Italy  and  Greece,  to 
the  Islands  afar  oif,  to  them  that  have  not  heard  of  me, 
and  have  not  seen  my  glory.  And  they  shall  declare  my 
glory  to  the  Gentiies,"  (24)  When  we  consider  the 
astonishing  success  which  has  crowned  the  labours  of 
her  Missionaries  in  every  part  of  the  globe,  for  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century,  may  we  not  address  the  Church  of 
God  in  the  language  of  the  same  inspired  writer  ? — *'  En- 
large the  place  of  thy  tent,  and  stretch  out  the  skins  of 
thy  tabernacles :  spare  not ;  lengthen  thy  cords,  and 
strengthen  thy  stakes.  For,  thou  shalt  pass  on  to  the 
right  hand,  and  to  the  left ;  and  thy  seed  shall  inherit 
the  Gentiles,  and  shall  inhabit  the  desolate  cities."  (25) 
Does  not  that  glorious  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
seem  to  dawn  upon  us,  of  which  it  was  written  : — '*  Lift 
up  thy  eyes  round  about,  and  see  :  all  these  are  gathered 
together,  they  are  come  to  thee  :  thy  sons  shall  come 
from  afar,  and  thy  daughters  shall  rise  up  at  thy  side. 
Then  shalt  thou  see,  and  abound,  and  thy  heart  shall 
wonder,  and  be  enlarged,  when  the  multitude  of  the  sea 
shall  be  converted  to  thee,  the  strength  of  the  Gentiles 
shall  come  to  thee  !  (26) 

The  Association  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Faith  is  solemnly  approved  of  by  the  Head  of  the 
Church ;  it  is  enriched  with  numerous  Indulgences,  and  is 
recommended  to  the  Faithful  by  nearly  all  the  Bishops 
of  the  Christian  world.  What  Catholic  then,  will  refuse  to 
contribute  his  prayers  or  his  mite  for  the  love  of  Him 

(24)  Isai.  Ixvi.  18.    (25)  Id.  Ut.  3.    (26)  Id.  Ix.  4. 


12 


PASTORAL  LETTER 


"  who  being  rich,  was  made  poor  for  our  sakes,"  and  for 
the  salvation  of  ilis  creatures  throughout  the  universe, 
for  whom  He  has  died,  and  whom  He  has  commanded 
us  to  love  ? 

We  need  not  remind  you.  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren, 
that  this  holy  Association  has  powerful  claims  on  the  gra 
titude  and  support  of  every  Cathohc  in  the  Diocese  of 
Halifax ;  for  we  have  frequently  recounted  to  you  the  his- 
tory of  its  benefactions  to  our  scattered  flock,  and  the 
blessed  fruits  of  its  abundant  and  truly  charitable  assis- 
tance. If  the  Ministers  of  the  Lord  have  been  multipli- 
ed,— if  new  labourers  arc  every  year  sent  into  His  vine- 
yard,— if  numerous  Temples  have  been  built  in  his  hon- 
our,— if  the  Holy  "  Places  where  His  glory  dwelleth ' 
have  been  beautified  and  adorned, — if  the  mysterious 
rites  and  aftecting  ceremonies  of  our  Holy  Church  have 
been  performed  with  solemnity  or  splendour, — if  the 
heart  of  the  poor  exile  in  the  wilderness  has  been  cheer- 
ed by  the  consolations  of  Religion, — if  the  expiring 
Christian  in  the  distant  settlement,  or  the  lonely  forest, 
has  been  fortified  by  the  Sacraments  of  Salvation, — if 
the  Gospel  of  Christ  has  been  preached  to  the  poor,  and 
the  Ancient  Faith  vindicated  before  those  who  knew  not 
its  priceless  value :  in  a  word,  if  many  hundreds  of  our 
separated  Brethren  have,  in  this  Diocese,  within  the  last 
few  years,  returned  to  the  Ark  of  security  and  peace, 
the  glorious  Church  of  their  Fathers ;  if  the  seeds  of  the 
Divine  Word  have  been  scattered  far  and  wide,  through 
the  medium  of  Good  Books,  and  the  endearing  emblems, 
the  sweet  memorials  of  Catholicity  have  been  diffused 
in  all  directions, — to  whom,  next  to  God,  are  we  chiefly 
indebted  for  such  consoling  and  inestimable  favours  ? 
With  confidence  and  gratitude,  we  answer : — To  The 
Association  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith. 

All  this  you  know,  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren ;  and  for 
the  last  eight  years,  especially  in  the  City  and  vicinity 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


la 


J 


of  Halifax,  you  have  testified  your  gratitude  not  only  by 
the  generous  contributions  which  you  have  poured  into 
this  sacred  treasury,  but  also  by  the  thanksgivings,  pray- 
ers, and  communions,  which  you  have  constantly  offer- 
ed to  Almighty  God  for  the  increasing  success  of  this 
blessed  work.  We  desire,  however,  that  throughout  the 
entire  Diocese,  even  in  the  poorest  parts  (and,  alas !  we 
know  too  well  the  general  poverty  of  the  rural  districts,) 
the  alms  for  this  Association,  no  matter  how  small, 
should  be  collected,  and  above  all,  that  continual  pray- 
ers should  be  offered  up  for  the  propagation  of  the  king- 
dom of  Christ. 

And  this  naturally  reminds  us  of  a  kindred  desire 
which  has  long  engaged  our  heart,  and  of  which,  parti- 
cularly during  the  Holy  Season  of  Lent,  we  trust  you  will 
not  be  unmindful.  It  is,  to  solicit  your  most  earnest 
prayers  for  the  conversion  of  the  Kingdom  of  England 
to  the  orthodox  faith. 

England  was  once  a  great  Catholic  country ;  for  more 
than  a  thousand  years  she  professed  the  Ancient  Creed. 
From  Rome,  the  centre  of  spiritual  light,  the  lamp  of 
faith  was  brought,  and  enkindled  upon  her  hills ;  and  by 
Missionaries  from  Rome,  the  trumpet  of  the  true  Gospel 
was  sounded  upon  her  shores.  She  could  boast  of  her 
adoption  by  a  sainted  Gregory  the  Great,  and  a  holy 
Augustine,  the  fruitful  parent  of  so  many  children  in  Christ. 
She  could  glory  in  a  Lucius,  a  Helen,  an  Ethelbcrt,  an 
Oswald,  an  Edmund,  and  Alfred,  and  an  Edward  the  Con- 
fesso-  •  an  Erkenwald  and  Chad,  a  Willibald  and  Wilfrid, 
a  Willibrord  and  Dunstan  and  S within,  an  Elphege,  an 
Anselm,  and  a  Thomas ;  a  venerable  Bede,  a  Bennet  Bis- 
cop,  a  Botulph,  a  Stephen,  and  a  Cuthbert.  From  the 
throne  to  the  cottage,  in  every  rank  of  life,  she  produced 
the  most  illustrious  Saints.  Her  Kings  and  Queens 
exchanged  their  palaces  for  the  cell,  their  diadems  for 
the  cowl,  and  resigned  all  earthly  power  to  devote  them- 


14 


PASTORAL  LETTEIl 


ll    - 


selves  to  Him,  "whom  to  serve  is  to  reign."  England 
was  long  famous  for  piety,  charity  and  learning.  Her 
religious  retreats  were  filled  with  the  votaries  of  sanc- 
tity and  science ;  hence,  her  Bishops,  her  Abhots,  her 
Doctors,  lier  holy  Martyrs,  her  innumerable  Virgins,  her 
Sacred  Architects,  the  countless  monuments  of  the  ho- 
hness,  munificence,  and  zeal,  of  her  truly  Catholic  people, 
occupy  many  of  the  brightest  pages  in  the  history  of  the 
Church. 

But,  alas !  in  an  evil  hour,  and  days  of  darkness,  a 
terrible  vicissitude  obscured  all  her  ancient  renown. 
How  has  her  gold  become  dim,  and  her  best  colour  been 
changed,  and  the  abomination  of  desolation  set  up  in 
her  holy  place,  and  the  stones  of  her  Sar  tuary  been 
scattered  at  the  top  of  every  street !  In  His  inscrutable 
judgments,  the  Lord  has  covered  her  with  obscurity  in 
the  day  of  his  wrath,  and  brought  her  into  darkness,  and 
not  into  light.  He  has  cast  her  down  headlong,  and  has 
not  spared  all  that  was  beautiful  in  her.  He  has,  in  His 
fierce  anger,  cast  off  her  Altar,  and  cursed  her  Sanctu- 
ary ;  He  has  delivered  the  walls  of  the  towers  thereof 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  His  law  was  no  more 
amongst  her,  R.nd  her  prophets  found  no  vision  from  the 
Lord.  Those  blind  prophets  saw  but  false  and  foolish 
things  for  her,  and  they  did  not  lay  open  her  iniquity  to 
excite  her  to  penance.  The  Lord  made  her  a  derision 
to  all  His  people — their  song  all  the  day  long.  He  filled 
her  with  bitterness,  fed  her  with  ashes,  removed  her 
soul  far  oflf  from  peace,  so  that  she  forgot  the  good  things 
of  old,  and  her  end  and  hope  seemed  to  have  perished. 
She  strayed  away  from  the  womb,  and  spoke  false  things. 
She  despised  the  faithful  Mother  who  had  begotten  her 
in  Christ,  who  had  nourished  her  with  sound  doctrine, 
and  exalted  her  to  glory  and  honour.  Great  has  been 
her  pride,  and  her  arrogance  as  that  of  Moab,  and  in 
the   multitude   of  her   strength    she  "persecuted   the 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


15 


Church  of  God,"  and  got  drunk  with  the  blood  of  his 
Martyrs.  She  made  His  servants  a  prey  to  the  fowls 
of  heaven,  and  gave  the  flesh  of  Ilis  saints  lo  the  beasts 
of  the  earth !  Great,  indeed,  as  the  sea,  was  her  de- 
struction :  who  could  heal  her  ?  (27) 

Oh  !  if  she  could  but  v  in  back  again  the  precious  pearl 
which  she  has  lost !  If  she  could  only  recover  that  sav- 
ing Faith  which  she  so  unhappily  surrendered !  If,  af- 
ter three  centuries  of  spiritual  degradation  and  chastise- 
ment,— and  we  look  upon  her  temporal  prosperity,  and 
her  mere  worldly  wisdom,  as  her  greatest  scourges— she 
could  only  obtain  pardon  of  her  great  national  crime, 
we  do  believe,  from  the  many  noble  and  estimable  natu- 
ral qi/ilities  of  her  people,  that  England  would  speedily 
become  one  of  the  fairest  portions  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  aid  perhaps  eclipse  her  ancient  glories. 

And  su'cly  the  arm  of  the  Most  High  is  not  shorten- 
ed. Whf  knows  but  that  the  Lord  may  turn  to  the  Eng- 
lish peope,  our  dear  though  separated  brethren,  our  be- 
loved felow-subjects,  and  forgive  them,  and  remember 
their  luquities  no  more  I  Who  knows  but  that  they 
mayoe  again  translated  from  darkness  into  His  admi- 
rab'e  light !  Who  know  s  but  that  they  may  return  again 
to  the  Holy  Mother  that  bore  them,  "  to  the  Rock  from 
i^hich  they  were  cut  out,"  to  the  centre  of  Unity  and 
Truth  from  which  they  received  their  first  Apostles ! 

From  the  wonderful  events  of  the  last  few  year j,  and 
the  extraordinary  changes  which  are  every  day  occur- 
ing,  there  is  much  ground  for  hope.  All  that  could  be 
accomplished  by  human  malice  or  human  wisdom, 
prompted  and  supported  by  the  powers  of  darkness,  to 
uproot  the  Ancient  Faith,  has  been  tried  in  vain ;  for 
"  there  is  no  wisdom,  there  is  no  prudence,  there  is  no 
counsel  against  the  Lord."  (28)  We  almost  shudder  at 
giving  even  a  brief  transcript  of  the  horrible  devices 
employed  against  the  Church  of  God ;  but  why  should 

(87)  Jerera.  &c.  passim.    Ps.  Ixxvii.    (28)  Proverbs  xxi.  30. 


16 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


we  not  exalt  the  heroism  of  His  faithful  servants  in  Eng- 
land—the invincible  power  of  His  Truth— the  irresistible 
strength   of  the  right  hand  of  the   Most  High!     We 
therefore  only  declare  what  is  notorious  to  the  world, 
when  we  say,  that  sanguinary  laws,  bribery  and  punish- 
ment, threats  and  smiles,  imprisonment  and  proscription, 
outrages  and   insult,   misrepresentation   and  calumny, 
sham  plots  and  mendacious  forgeries,   exclusion   from 
place  and  power — oppression  in  the  army,  degradation 
in  the  navy,  injustice  in  the  courts  of  law,  banishment 
from  the  halls  of  science,  crushing  fines,  grevious  exac- 
tions, cruel   confiscations — the   rack,  the  scourge,  tlu* 
gibbet — every  form  of  torture,  all  species  of  contuaely 
— whatsoever  was  hideous    in    bondage,  debas\ig  in 
slavery,  unnatural  in  civil  strife— all  that  poisr^ed  the 
springs  of  friendship,  destroyed  the  charities  of  life,  and 
rent  asunder  the  dearest    ties  of  nature — all  all  have 
been  tried,  and  tried  in  vain.    In  vain  were  ti"ed  tlio  il- 
limitable resources,  the  vast  wealth,  the  boundess  |m;w'- 
er,  of  the  greatest  Empire  that  perhaps  the  vorld  has 
ever  beheld.     The  indestructible  germ  of  divine '^Vuth, 
planted  deeply  in  the  soil,  by  the  zealous  labours  oi  hoj 
first  Missionaries,  could  never  be  eradicated  from  the 
fair  bosom  of  England.     Her  Catholicity  was  not  deal ; 
it  merely  slept.    There  were  always  a  chosen  few,  wIk. 
never  bent  the  knee  to  Baal.    There  were  always  some 
who  refused  to  pronounce  that  dreadful  and  impious  sen- 
tence of  damnation  against  all  Christendom,  and  to  de- 
clare, that  "  for  eight  hundred  years  and   upwards "  it 
was  plunged  in  gross  idolatry.     There  were  always  some 
lofty  souls,  and  faithful  sons,  who  refused  to  curse  the 
ashes  of  their  pious  ancestors,  and  who  would  not  be- 
lieve— the  very  thought  filled  them  with  horror — that 
the  hallowed  remains  of  their  forefathers,  which,  for  up- 
wards of  ten  centuries  had  accumulated  the  soil  in  the 
innumerable  Cemeteries  of  Old  England,  were  nothing 
more  than  the  bones  of  Idolators  who  had  perished  un- 


"t;J 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


17 


il- 


up- 

the 

hing 

i  un- 


der the  malediction  of  heaven.  Oh !  how  could  they 
beUcve  this,  when  they  looked  around  and  beheld  on 
every  side  the  time-honuured  monuments  of  Catholic 
England ;  the  enduring  testimonials  of  piety,  charity, 
and  faith;  the  superb  cathedrals,  the  spacious  abbeys, 
the  beauteous  cloisters,  the  solemn  temples,  the  lofty 
spires,  the  rich  tabernacles,  the  jewelled  vases,  the  en- 
amelled shrines,  the  glittering  chancels,  the  gorgeous 
windows,  the  towering  columns,  and  the  sculptured  arch- 
es ;  the  noble  universities,  colleges  and  schools,  the  vast 
libraries,  the  pious  endowments,  the  charitable  legacies, 
the  chauntries,  the  hospitals,  the  alms-houses,  the  refu- 
ges for  the  destitute  and  the  aged  of  every  rank,  those 
sweet  asylums  for  the  poor,  in  which  poverty  was  deem- 
ed no  crime,  but  was  honoured  and  respected,  and  cher- 
ished, with  tendercst  care,  for  His  sake.  Who,  for  love 
of  us,  made  Himself  poor !  How  could  they  assert 
that  the  Great  Nation  who  had  bequeathed  to  posterity 
so  many  imperishable  records  of  their  knowledge  of  the 
Gospel,  and  their  practical  belief  in  Christ  were  nothing 
better,  after  all.  than  the  Infidel  or  the  Pagan !  Ac- 
cordingly those  devoted  sons  of  Old  Catholic  England, 
steadfast  in  their  allegiance  to  God,  remained  faithful  to 
the  Church  of  their  fathers.  Throughout  a  long  and 
withering  persecution,  in  which  they  were  deprived  of 
all  human  consolation,  they  hoped  against  hope.  Weep- 
ing, they  wept  in  this  long  night  of  sorrow,  over  the 
desolation  of  their  Sanctuary,  and  their  tears  were  on 
their  cheeks ;  for  amongst  all  those  who  were  before 
dear  to  them,  there  was  none  to  comfort  them.  (29) 
Nevertheless,  like  the  prophet  Daniel,  they  were  Men 
OF  Desires,  and  they  prayed,  without  ceasing,  that  the 
days  of  desolation  and  captivity  might  be  shortened  up- 
on God's  people,  that  the  transgression  of  their  beloved 
country  might  be  finished,  and  its  sin  might  have  an 
end.  (.30)     How  fortunate  for  England  that  she  possess- 

(29)  Jerem.     (30)  Daniel  ix.  23.  24. 

2 


18 


PASTORAL  LETTER 


*    if 


h 


0(1  this  faithful  band  of  Confessors  and  Martyrs !  For 
"  if  the  Lord  of  Hosts  had  not  left "  her  that  precious 
"  seed "  she  "  would  have  been  as  Sodom,  and  should 
liave  been  like  to  Gomorrha."  (.31) 

Their  prayers  and  tears,  no  less  than  the  continual 
intercession  of  the  glorious  array  of  the  sainted  spirits 
of  England,  seem  to  have  at  length  prevailed  before  the 
throne  above.  A  more  enlightened  policy  has  in  some 
measure  supplanted  the  persecuting  spirit  of  other  dis- 
astrous times.  A  bright  streak — the  forerunner  of  a 
glorious  dawn — has  appeared  upon  her  religious  hori- 
zon ;  and  those  who  sighed  so  long,  in  remembering  the 
splendours  of  the  olden  time,  look  up  with  grateful  ad- 
miration, and  joyful  hope.  The  fountains  of  ancient 
Truth,  so  long  sealed  up,  have  been  gradually  re-open- 
ed, and  the  "  desert,  waterless  land "  (32)  is  refreshed 
and  gladdened  with  its  fertilizing  streams.  Many  of 
"  the  people  who  walked  in  darkness  have  seen  the  great 
light"  (33)  which  was  erst  while  shed  upon  their  fathers. 
They  have  begun  to  read  their  national  history  with  the 
eye  of  Faith,  and  to  discern,  in  every  thing  around 
them,  the  true  vestiges  of  English  glory,  the  solid  proofs 
of  universal  fame,  the  best  pledges  of  temporal  peace, 
and  of  endless  bliss  to  come.  The  way-side  cross,  the 
ivy-mantled  turret,  the  storied  sepulchre,  the  silent  cell, 
the  painted  window,  the  frescoed  wall,  the  encaustic 
pavement,  the  antique  gem,  the  illuminated  manuscript, 
the  ancient  coin,  the  regal  robes,  the  coronation  rite, 
the  royal  charities,  the  knightly  armour,  the  municipal 
l)adge,  the  heraldic  device,  the  monumental  inscription, 
the  old  patent,  the  moth-eaten  deed,  the  legal  formula, 
the  parochial  titles,  the  black-letter  calender,  the  patron 
saints  of  churches,  the  collegiate  rules,  the  pious  stat- 
utes of  olden  guilds,  the  hallowed  festival  customs,  the 
popular  games,  the  familiar  salutations,  the  names  of 
streets,  villages  and  towns,  the  very  "  stones  crying  out 

(31)  laai.  i.  9.    (32)  Pe.  Ixii.  3.     (33)  Isai.  ix. 


i 


' 


ll 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


19 


from  the  walls  "  (31)  of  the  dismantled  temple — all  those 
unerring   telegraphs,    which   commimicate   to   modern 
times  the  belief  of  other  days,  have  spoken  to  the  Eng- 
lish heart  in   mute,   but  eloquent   language,  and  have 
awakened  it  from  the  torpor  of  ages.    The  transcendent 
beauties  of  Catholic  Art  arc  admired  and  copied.    The 
"  dark  ages,"  once  so  vilified,  are  now  encircled  with  a 
halo  of  brightness.     The  **  lazy  monks  "  are  found  to  be 
the  benefactors  of  mankind,  and  to  have  rendered  im- 
mense services  to  society,  in  the  scriptorium  and  at  the 
plough,  as  well  as  in  the  schools  of  science,  the  chancel, 
or  the  pulpit.     The  spirit  of  the  tasteful  and  indefati- 
gable Pugin  has  breathed  upon  the  unsightly  heaps  of 
Protestant  Architecture,  informed  the  grotesque  piles 
of  modern  fashion,  and  in  his  plastic  hand  moulded  chaos 
itself  into  beauty,  sublimity  and  order.     Thus,  William 
of  Wykham  is  revered,   not  only  in  his  own  beloved 
Winchester,  but  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land.      The  enchanting  pages  of  Digby,  that  skilful 
miner,  who,  with  incessant  toil  has  dug  up  the  buried 
treasures  of  the  Ages  of  Faith,  and  from  his  rich  stores 
house  of  Catholic  lore  "  brought  forth  new  things  and 
old  "   (35)  to  astonish,  to  dazzle,  to  inflame  his  delight- 
ed reader, — have  confounded  the  calumnies  of  literary 
pretenders,  and   pointed  out  to  the  weary  pilgrim  of 
the  soul,  the  thousand  alluring  paths  which  converge 
and  lead  to  the   only  consecrated  Temple   of  Unity 
and  Peace.    Attested  in  his  own  blood,  the  "  Ten  Rea- 
sons" of  Campian,  the  glorious  son  of  St.  Ignatius,  once 
addressed  in  vain  to  Oxford,  have  at  length  prevailed  in 
that  renowned  seat  of  learning ;  and  attracted  by  that 
potent  voice  which  called  Peter  from  his  nets,  Paul  from 
the  synagogue,  and  Matthew  from  the  customs,  numbers 
of  the  most  gifted  sons  of  that  famous  University  have 
renounced  all  things  to  follow  Christ.     The  pure  and 
incorruptible  soul   of  More  again  hovers  around  the 

(34)  Habacuc.  ii.  11.    (35)  Matt.  xiii.  52. 


fl 


20 


rASTOUAL  LETTEIl. 


precints  of  Westminister  Hall,  and  the  blood  of  the 
martyred  Fihiikr  han  cried  out  with  effect  to  the  most 
distinguished  of  the  Iwit^lish  Clergy,  and  induced  them, 
by  the  consideration  of  the  singular  anomaly  of  Church 
lleadHliip  so  clearly  described  seventeen  centuries  ago 
by  the  stern  African  doctor,  (30)  to  restore  their  alle- 
giance to  the  successor  of  Peter,  the  Vicegerent  of 
.hjsus  Christ,  for  whose  spiritual  supremacy  that  great 
prelate  of  RoclH\ster  so  nobly  died.  Father  Pekhons, 
the  distinguished  alumnus  of  Baliol  College  at  Oxford, 
is  ably  represented  by  the  learned  Nkwman,  who  writes 
also  with  depth  and  feeling  for  the  conversion  of  his  na- 
tive land.  The  evangelical  boldness  of  Pkyto  and 
Elstow,  the  glorying  in  the  Cross  of  Christ,  and  the 
contempt  of  the  world's  ridicule,  which  immortalized 
Hou<3iiTON,  the  holy  Prior  of  the  Charter  House,  are 
seen  again  in  an  Oakcley,  a  Faber,  a  Ward,  a  Father 
Ignatius,  who  glories  in  the  livery  of  Jesus  Crucified, 
and  fears  not  to  "  speak  of  the  testimonies  of  the  Lord 
in  the  presence  of  Kings."  (37)  The  mighty  metrop- 
olis has  found  a  successor  for  Pole  in  profound  and  va- 
ried erudition,  and  orthodox  zeal,  as  well  as  in  the  high- 
est honours  of  the  Roman  purple.  In  a  word,  the  ma- 
jesty and  befHity  ot  our  spotless  Church  are  quietly  re- 
suming their  ancient  sway.  England  is  returning  to  judg- 
ment, and  the  wicked  elders  who  conspired  to  blacken 
the  fair  fame  of  the  Spouse  of  Christ  are  already  con- 
victed of  prevarication  and  falsehood. 

These  are  some  of  the  wondrous  works  which  have 
been  wrought  before  our  eyes,  and  for  the  accomplishment 
of  which  many  past  generations  have  wept  and  prayed, 
'nave  suffered  and  died.  Truly  th"s  is  the  Lord's  own 
work,  and  it  is  wonderful  in  our  eyes ! 

If  we  were  to  imagine.  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren,  that 
this  mighty  throbbing  of  the  national  pulse  should  create 

(36)  Non  permittitur  mulicri  in  Ecdesia  loqui ;  sed  nee  doccre,  nee  tinguere^ 
nee  offerre,  nee  ullius  virilis  muneris,  nedum  Sacerdotalis  opyicic  borteai 
liibi  vendicaro.    Tertullian  De  Virg.  Velandis.  C.  IX.     (37)  Ps.  cxviii.  46. 


PASTORAL  LEITER. 


21 


no  HonHRtion;  that  tlicsn  lon<(  stajjjnanf,  watora  should  l»o 
Htirnnl  to  their  very  doptlis  without  houio  ofleiisive  com- 
motion; that  the  enemy  of  truth,  thc"«tron^-nrme<l  nmn 
of  the  gospel,"  who  wus  at  peace  wfiilst  his  poHse  siona 
were  secure,  ahould  not  he  disturb(;d  "when  a  strouji^er 
than  h(;  has  come  to  (hsarm  and  defeat  liim,"  and  to 
"scatter  all  hi.s  sj)oils"(li8)  -  we  would  indeed  he  greatly 
deceived.  Ilence,  it  was  most  natural,  that  when  Catho- 
licity again  reared  its  venerable  heaci  on  iMiglish  ground, 
when  clergy  and  laity,  peers  and  peasants,  rich  and  poor, 
learned  and  simple,  heroic  souls  of  all  ranks,  degrees,  and 
professions,  crowded  around  her,  and  having  first  admired, 
and  then  reverenced,  finally  embraced  her, — the  inmost 
fibres  of  the  national  heart  should  be  violently  convulsed. 
We  must  not  be  surprised,  therefore,  that  England,  that 
London,  should  be  terrified  at  this  dread  apparition-  this 
astounding,  alarming  fact,  of  the  advent  of  the  Old  Reli- 
gion, as  "all  Jerusalem  was  disturbed'' (.i9)  when  the 
wise  men  from  the  East  cried  aloud  in  her  streets,  and 
proclaimed  at  her  palace  gates,  that  the  King  of  the  Jews 
was  born,  that  they  had  seen  His  star,  and  that  He  had 
come  to  claim  the  rightful  homage  of  his  subjects.  No 
wonder  that  our  modern  "  chief  priests  and  scribes  of  the 
people"  should  quake  w  ith  alarm,  and  raise  an  unholy 
clamour,  when  they  beheld  strangers,  at  it  were,  from 
afar,  coming  into  the  midst  of  them,  to  point  out  that 
true  hght  which  they  had  so  long  obscured — to  preach 
that  pure  doctrine  which  they  had  so  long  corrupted — to 
convert  the  sinner  whom  they  had  left  to  perish  in  his 
iniquity — to  evangelize  the  poor  whom  they  had  so  cruelly 
abandoned — to  reclaim  to  morality  and  religion  the  hapless 
victims  of  ignorance  and  crime,  the  masses  who  knew 
not  God,  who  could  not  tell  the  very  name  of  their  Re- 
deemer, who  could  not  designate  the  gentle  and  gracious 
Sovereign  that  ruled  over  them,  who  feared  no  hell,  and 
hoped  for  no  salvation (40).     Could  it  be  expected  that 

(38)  Luke  xi.  21,  22.     (39)  Matt.  ii.  3.     (40)  Evidence  ir;  ?-r':aniO!iwry 


■pwwwwww—— p 


MM 


mm 


u 


22 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


the  spirits  of  error  would  be  peacefully  ejected  from  their 
old  haunts,  or  that,  Hke  the  two  dispossessed  "in  the  coun- 
try of  the  Gerasens"  they  would  not  "come  out  of  their 
sepulchres  exceeding  fierce,  so  that  none  could  pass  by 
their  way,"  and  that  in  an  agony  of  disappointment  at 
their  unexpected  disturbance  they  would  not  "cry  out, 
saying :  Jesus,  Son  of  God !  art  thou  come  hither  to 
torment  us  before  the  time?"(41) 

No,  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren ;  the  deafening  clamour 
that  has  been  raised,  the  wi'd  shouts  that  have  rent  the 
skies,  the  opprobious  epithets  and  furious  threats,  the 
bowlings  of  the  pulpit  and  the  denunciations  of  the  press, 
the  amusing  alternations  of  assumed  confidence  and 
alarming  fear,  all  the  affectation  of  contempt,  with  all 
the  reality  of  terror,  the  insults  hurled  against  the  Mo- 
ther of  Jesus,  the  Queen  of  Heaven;  the  audacious 
blasphemies  against  God  and  His  saints ;  the  indignities 
offered  to  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  and  to  a  Pontiff  so  great 
and  so  holy,  whose  paternal  heart  always  yearned  for 
the  welfare  of  his  people,  whose  merciful  spirit  has  not 
been  even  once  embittered  by  all  the  malice  of  his  un- 
grateful children,  and  whose  venerable  name  the  English 
Journals  had  before  covered  with  the  foul  slaver  of  their 
hypocritical  eulogy  ;  the  shameful  treatment  of  the  Mi- 
nisters of  the  Altar,  and  the  Princes  of  the  Church ;  all 
those  ever-to-be-regretted  ebullitions  which  have  made 
wise  men  blush,  and  good  men  grieve  ;  all  those  painful 
demonstrations  which  excite  not  our  indignation  or  our 
surprise,  but  our  tenderest  pity,  and  most  christian  sym- 
pathy, for  the  poor,  unsuspecting  people,  so  deceived, 
by  blind  and  interested  guides  :  prove,  and  prove  incon- 
testably,  the  extent  and  depth  of  the  deadly  wound  which 
has  been  already  inflicted  on  the  prince  of  darkness. 
Yes,  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren,  whilst  we  deeply  deplore 

Blue  Books,  Testimonies  of  Protestant  Clergymen,  Magistrates,  Overseers, 
&c.  respecting  the  population  in  mines,  factories  and  rural  districts. 

(41)  Matt.  viii.  28,  29. 


■i 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


23 


the  many  oft'ences  recently  committed  in  England  against 
the  Almighty,  we  behold  clearly,  in  the  signs  of  the 
times,  the  haroingers  of  His  approaching  mercies. 

Far  be  it  from  us,  therefore,  to  feel  the  least  alarm  at 
the  impotent  threats  which  have  been  hurled  against  our 
venerable  Religion,  or  our  immoveable  Church.  We 
know  in  whom  we  have  trusted,  and  who  has  desired  us 
to  have  confidence,  because  He  has  overcome  our  com- 
mon enemy,  the  world.  (42)  For,  to  speak  with  the 
illustrious  Bishop  of  Hippo,  Ours  is  "  the  Holy  Church, 
the  One  Church,  the  True  Church,"  whicii  combats  all 
heresies.  She  may  fight,  but  she  cannot  be  overcome. 
All  heresies  have  gone  out  from  her,  hke  useless  branches 
Ior>ed  oflf  from  the  vine ;  but  She  remains  in  her  root, 
in  her  vine,  in  her  charity.  "The  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
overcome  her."  (43)  Founded  on  a  rock  as  immutable 
as  Christ's  promise  ;  in  her  beauty  always  ancient,  and 
ever  new,  the  Catholic  Church  has  shone  as  a  glorious 
Light  to  the  whole  world.  Assailed  from  within  ahd 
without,  each  successive  struggle  is  but  the  prelude  of 
a  new  victory.  Faithful  to  the  Counsels  of  Her  Divine 
Founder,  She  is  patient,  she  endures,  she  hopes,  she 
prays,  and  she  triumphs.  The  billows  of  heresy  and 
schism,  the  swelling  waves  of  infidelity  and  error  have 
dashed  against  her  sides  in  vain.  The  scorching  blasts 
of  fifty  persecutions  Imve  swept  over  her,  but  she  has 
not  once  bowed  her  majestic  head.  For  countless  ages 
the  tide  of  time  h  as  rolled  by  Her,  bearing  to  destruction 
on  its  bosom  every  of  the  works  of  man,  but  She  re- 
mains unmoved,  whilst  each  generation,  as  it  passes, 
bends  in  obeisaiice  before  Her,  proclaims  Her  to  be  like 
Her  Invisible  Head,  "the  same  yesterday,  to-day.  and 
forever"  (44)  and  salutes  H<3r  as  "Quee:;  of  Eternity." 

We  can  have,  therefore,  nothing  to  fear,  but  much  to 

(42)  John  xvi.  ?}3.  (43)  Ipsa  est  Ecclesia  sancta.  EcclesiaUna  Ecclesia 
vera,  Ecclesia  Catholica  contra  omnes  hr::ieses  pu^nans.  Pugnare  potest,  ex- 
pugpari  tamen  non  potest,  &c.  Portae  inferi  non  vincent  earn.  S.  Aug.  Serm. 
de  Symbol,  ad  Catechmenos.     (44>  Heb.  xii  <=. 


24 


PASTORAL  LEITER 


hope  from  the  present  condition  of  England.  The  nerv- 
ous agitation  of  our  opponents,  tlieir  appeals  to  physical 
force,  their  loud  calls  upon  the  civil  power  for  assistance, 
show  that  they  have  no  confidence  in  their  stability,  and 
that  they  have  given  up  the  field  of  argument  in  despair. 
For  surely  they  would  not  indulge  in  such  frantic  rage, 
if  they  really  believed,  that  their  Church  was  built  upon 
a  Rock,  and  that  by  Divine  Promise,  the  gates  of  hell 
could  not  prevail  against  her.  It  was  their  favourite  and 
insulting  allegation,  that  Catholicity  was  the  legitimate 
offspring  of  ignorance,  and  that  in  any  free  and  enlight- 
ened country,  it  could  not  stand  the  test  of  discussion. 
No  doubt,  they  had  long  disproved  the  sincerity  of  this 
assertion  by  the  jealous  vigilance  with  which  they  guard- 
ed the  fountains  of  Knowledge,  and  deprived  the  hapless 
Catholic  of  all  chance  of  education.  But  it  has  been 
reserved  for  this  our  day,  to  give  a  crushing  contradic- 
tion to  this  old,  stereotyped  calumny.  For,  after  ages  of 
persecution,  a  long  possession  of  power,  and  an  exclu- 
sive use  of  all  the  sources  of  science  on  their  part,  we 
have  met  the  chosen  champions  of  error,  under  every 
disadvantage.  We  have  met  them  at  the  press,  and  in 
the  pulpit,  the  college  and  the  university,  on  the  public 
platform,  and  in  private  discussion,  in  the  courts  of  law, 
and  in  the  popular  assemblies,  in  the  proud  mansions  of 
the  great,  as  well  as  in  the  desolate  abodes  of  the  poor, 
in  the  peasant's  cot,  no  less  than  the  baronial  castle : 
and  we  had  nothing  to  offer  but  Glorious  Truth,  for 
the  possession  of  which,  we  demanded  the  sacrifice  of 
all  that  was  d<^ir  to  flesh  and  blood.  The  result  is 
BEFORE  THE  WORLD.  lu  spitc  of  all  their  glittering 
bribes,  the  great  cause  of  Truth  has  been  triumphant. 
Jesus  Crucified, — O  astonishing  power  of  Divine  grace ! 
— with  all  the  opprobium  and  folly  of  the  Cross,  has  be- 
gun to  reign  in  generous  hearts  which  once  rejected  His 
sweet  yoke.  Innumerable  souls  which  had  long  flitted 
over  the  dehige  of  unbehef,  have  happily  returned  to  the 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


25 


Ark  of  rest.  The  tempest  tossed  wlio  were  "carried 
about  by  every  wind  of  doctrine"  have  at  length  found 
the  Divine  security  of  Peter's  Bark.  Egypt  has  been 
despoiled,  and  the  People  of  God  are  ennched  with  her 
most  valuable  treasures.  Their  great  champions,  and 
noblest  ornaments  we  have  made  captives  of  Faith,  and 
docile  members  of  God's  Holy  Church.  Their  most 
learned  doctors  with  all  the  edifying  simplicity  of  little 
children  in  Christ,  have  descended  from  their  chairs, 
and,  seated  at  His  feet,  have  begun  to  learn  the  very 
rudiments  of  the  science  of  salvation,  in  His  School  of 
humility  and  meekness.  And  these  marvellous  changes, 
these  magnificent  intellectual  triumphs  hcive  been 
achieved  by  sound  arguments  from  reason  and  Scrip- 
ture, aided  by  divine  grace ;  most  certainly  not  by  bribes, 
coercion,  or  any  species  of  physical  force.  And  it  is  not 
alone  the  poor,  the  lowly,  the  simple,  the  untitled  and 
obscure ;  no ;  but  the  rich,  the  noble,  the  learned,  the 
pious,  the  truly  honest  have  been  converted ;  men,  whose 
great  sacrifices  are  the  surest  test  of  the  depth  of  their 
convictions,  and  the  unimpeachable  sincerity  of  their 
motives.  Thus,  beaten  in  every  field  of  argument,  torn 
by  intestine  dissensions,  bel«^aguered  by  powerful  as- 
sailants, abandoned  by  the  learned  and  virtuous  of  her 
own  children,  most  skilfully  assaulted  on  all  sidv.^,  by 
the  very  weapons  which  she  had  herself  wielded  against 
the  Immaculate  Spouse  of  Christ,  the  Protestant  Church 
in  England,  which,  like  the  creed  of  Mahomet,  was  first 
propagated  by  the  passions  and  the  sword,  true  to  the 
principles  of  her  origin,  and  keenly  alive  to  the  essential 
conditions  of  her  existence,  would  now  recur  in  her  de- 
cline, to  brute  force,  to  penal  laws,  to  galling  restric- 
tions,— invokes  all  the  strength  of  England,  and  all  the 
"  omnipotence  of  Parliament"  furbishes  and  sharpens 
all  the  old  congenial  weapons,  not  against  what  is  called 
"  Papal  Usurpation  " — for  that  is  a  mere  pretext  to  hide 
the  vindictive  spirit  of  mortifying  defeat,  and  the  low 


26 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


cunning  of  baffled  political  intrigue — but  in  reality 
against  some  poor  bishops,  priests,  and  laymen,  against 
a  small  chosen  band  of  men  an  honour  to  Christianity 
and  human  nature,  the  ornaments  of  their  country,  who 
have  renounced  everything  for  the  sake  of  the  Gospel 
Truth  which  they  once  opposed,  but  for  which  they  are 
now  prepared  to  shed  their  blood. 

And  what.  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren,  has  produced 
this  great  Religious  Revolution  ?  What  has  caused  these 
"  dry  bones  "  to  hearken  to  the  Word  of  the  Lord,  and 
to  be  clothed  with  sinews  and  flesh,  and  to  be  covered 
with  skin,  and,  wl.  i  infused  spirit,  to  live  again  ?  (45) 
We  believe  that  it  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  potent 
spell,  the  vivifying  influence  of  Holy  Prayer.  For 
some  years  past,  in  several  parts  of  Christendom,  Pray- 
ers have  been  oflfered  up  for  the  conversion  of  England. 
Through  the  untiring  and  zealous  exertions  of  a  noble 
Convert  of  the  House  of  Spencer,  to  whom  we  have 
already  alluded,  and  who  loves  England  with  the  whole 
soul  of  a  true  Christian  Patriot,  the  charity  of  foreign 
Catholics  has  been  excited  in  her  behalf.  From  many 
a  silent  cloister  and  lonely  cell,  and  hallowed  santuary, 
in  distant  lands,  have  the  most  earnest  petitions  for  Eng- 
land ascended  in  secret  to  Heaven.  What  a  contrast 
botween  the  peaceful  weapons  by  which  the  children  of 
the  Church  would  win  back  to  Christ's  Kingdom  this 
ancient  realm,  and  the  violence  of  language  and  action 
which  characterise  the  defenders  of  modern  innovation  ! 
For  discussion,  they  have  substituted  abuse  ;  and  fling- 
ing aside  the  Bible,  with  all  its  fraternal  love,  they  ap- 
peal to  the  odious  Statute  Book  with  all  its  penalties  and 
pains.  We  pray ;  they  would  fight.  We  call  down 
mercy  upon  them  ;  they  cry  out  for  vengeance  against 
us.  In  high  places,  the  bandage  has  been  rudely  torn 
from  the  eyes  of  Justice,  and  the  equipoise  of  the  im- 
partial scales  disturbed  by  her  half-unsheathed  sword. 

(45)  Ezechiel  xxxvii.  4.  6. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


27 


The  First  Minister  of  the  Crown,  whose  high  position 
and  sacred  obligation  to  consultwithimpartiality  for  the 
welfare  of  all  her  Majesty's  subjects,  should  have  kept 
him,  in  an  Empire  of  so  many  divers  creeds,  far  aloof 
from  the  angry  struggles  of  religious  polemics,  has  not 
only  descended  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  but,  with 
a  recklessness  which  baffles  all  conjecture  as  to  its  cause 
and  its  object,  has  actually  himself  sounded  the  horrid 
tocsin  of  civil  strife,  hurled  the  most  abusive  and  con- 
temptuous epithets  against  the  Religion  of  nearly  all 
Christendom,  and  the  doubly-anointed  King  of  the  most 
ancient  Sovereignty  in  Europe  ;  provoked  and  encour- 
aged a  fearful  excitement  for  which  posterity  will  hold 
him  responsible,  and  which,  alas !  seems  preparing  to 
obscure  some  of  the  brightest  pages  of  English  History 
which  would  record  the  mild,  peaceful,  and  prosperous 
reign  of  a  Sovereign  so  universally  and  deservedly  en- 
shrined in  the  hearts  of  all  who  own  Her  gentle  sway, 
and  assuredly  by  none  more  than  by  the  millions  of  Her 
faithful  Catholic  subjects,  both  Bishops,  Priests  and  Lay- 
men, from  the  centre  to  the  extremities  of  Her  vast 
Empire.* 

*  As  a  specimen  of  the  sad  lengths  to  which  the  country  has  been  driven 
by  the  mischievous  "  mummeries  "  of  this  great  political  charlatan,  it  has  been 
observed  with  pain,  that  even  "  the  Women  of  Windsor "  have  petitioned 
Her  Majesty  "  to  save  them  from  the  encroachments  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome !  " 
Poor,  hapless  innocents  !  They  ought  to  have  known  that  if  Woman  is  not 
in  Europe  the  degraded  slave  of  passion  and  caprice,  as  in  the  tyrannical  coun- 
tries nf  the  East,  she  owes  it  all  to  the  influence  of  Catholicity,  and  the  Apos- 
tolic firmness  of  "  the  Bishop  of  Rome."  It  was  Rome,  and  the  Bishops  of 
Rome  that  always  vindicated  the  dignity,  independence,  and  rights  of  woman 
in  the  social  scale,  against  Princes,  Kings,  and  Emperors,  against  feudal  ty- 
ranny and  barbarian  violence.  '  "^fhe  Women  of  Windsor '  need  not  have 
gone  beyond  their  own  Castle  to  look  for  proofs  and  precedents  in  favour  of 
these  assertions.  A  Bishop  of  Rome  even  at  the  hazard  of  losing  the  King- 
dom of  England  as  a  spiritual  appanage,  resisted  to  the  last,  the  fearful  and 
bloody  '  encroachments  '  on  the  rights  of  Woman,  of  thai  tyrannical  monster 
the  Eighth  Henry.  Well  would  it  be  for  the  Women  oi  Windsor,  and  the 
Women  of  England  if  the  salutary  influence  of  the  Bishi  p  of  Rome  were 
more  felt  in  England,  to  curb  the  unbridled  passions  of  ..icu  by  the  discipline 
of  the  Gospel,  to  secure  for  their  children  the  essential  rites  of  Holy  Baptism 
against  the  '  encroachments"  of  Privy  Councils,  and  to  maintain  the  indis- 
solubility of  the  Marriage  tie — that  divine  and  sure  protection  of  social  order, 
domestic  harmony,  and  Woman's  rights. 


28 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


Jhl 


We  turn  with  relief  from  the  contemplation  of  this 
painful  subject,  and  the  perils  which  have  been  risked 
by  this  most  unwise  Statesman,  to  the  far  different  cru- 
sade which  has  been  preached  up  amongst  us,  by  the 
Peter  the  Hermit  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Dissonance 
and  harmony,  truth  and  error,  light  and  darkness,  are 
not  more  different  than  the  key-notes  of  a  Russell  and  a 
Spencer.  We  have  seen  the  latter  crying  out  for  Peace, 
and  not  the  Sword.  We  have  not  heard  him  sounding 
the  war-cry  of  battle,  but  sweetly  inviting  us  to  pray  to 
the  God  of  Armies. 

And  can  we  refuse  his  supphcation  ?  Can  we  shut  our 
ears  against  this  "Voice  OF  the  English"  which  speaks 
through  his  mouth  ?  Many  thousands  of  you.  Dearly 
Beloved  Brethren,  are  of  Irish  birth,  or  of  Irish  descent : 
Now,  this  Apostle  of  Prayer  has  specially  set  his  heart 
upon  securing  the  Prayers  of  the  Irish.  He  knew 
their  faith,  their  piety  and  their  fervour.  He  knew  how 
acceptable  in  their  mouth  would  be  prayers  for  such  an 
object.  He  felt  what  a  sublime  spectacle  of  christian 
forgiveness,  and  christian  charity,  in  the  sight  of  God 
and  man,  would  be  faithful  Ireland  prostrate  in  supplica- 
tion to  Heaven,  for  mercy  and  compassion  on  her  ancient 
enemy.  And  within  the  last  year,  wherever  he  was 
seen  amongst  them  on  his  errand  of  love,  have  not  the 
persecuted  Irish  nobly  responded  to  his  call?  Yes; 
they  have  proved  that  they  can  make  sacrifices  of  feeling, 
as  well  as  sacrifices  of  property  and  life,  for  the  Glorious 
Faith  which  they  loved  more  dearly  than  both.  Having 
learned  from  Him  who  was  judged  unjustly  how  to  die 
for  Truth,  they  have  also  learned  how  to  -pray  for  their 
enemies. 

It  ^eems   as  if  by  some  inscrutable  dispensation  of 

]  .vine  Providence,  that,  Ireland,  whose  nationahty  is  as 

^inct  and  peculiar  now  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Henry 

II.,  should  be  reserved  as  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of 

God  for  the  weal  or  woe,  the  ''  ruin  or  resurrection"  of 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


29 


to 


;ir 


her  more  powerful  neighbour.  More  grateful  to  our 
heart  is  the  conjecture  of  many  wise  and  holy  men,  that 
England  will  recover  her  lost  Faith  through  the  agency 
of  Ireland  by  that  sweetly-disposing  wisdom  ofllim  who 
chooses  the  foolish  things  of  this  world  to  confound  the 
wise,  and  the  weak  things  of  this  world  to  confound  the 
strong,  and  the  things  that  are  contemptible  and  that 
are  not,  to  bring  to  nought  the  things  that  arc,  that  no 
flesh  should  glory  in  his  sight.  (40)  Indeed  for  a  long 
time  past  the  Irish  have  been  silently,  and  perhaps  un- 
consciously engaged  in  the  conversion  of  England.  A 
very  large  number  of  the  English  Missions  are  supported 
by  Irish  priests,  Irish  Congregations,  Irish  generosity, 
and  Irish  zeal.  Thus  in  the  hands  of  God,  throuf^h  whom 
"all  things  co-operate  unto  good"  (47)  even  the  sins  of 
men,  (48)  the  indirect  fruit  of  English  oppression  in 
Ireland,  has  been,  to  import  back  again  to  the  shores 
of  Albion,  that  Religion  which  she  so  much  dreaded. 
Neither  is  it  the  first  time  that  England  has  derived  much 
spiritual  benefit  and  intellectual  improvement  from  the 
Island  of  Saints.  Twelve  centuries  ago  the  valuable 
services  of  Ireland  or  this  score  were  gratefully  acknow- 
ledged by  the  Venerable  Bede.  Then,  as  well  as  now, 
the  Irish  Clergy  penetrated  to  the  remotest  parts  of  Bri- 
tain, to  bear  the  tidings  of  salvation.  Then,  likewise,  as 
recorded  by  this  holy  English  priest,  came  numbers  both 
of  the  nobles  and  the  middle  classes  of  the  English,  into 
Ireland,  to  acquire  sacred  learning,  and  the  discipline 
of  a  pure  life  :  and  they  were  received  with  hospitality 
and  kindness,  and  were  generously  supplied  with  food, 
books,  and  Masters,  by  the  warm-hearted  people  of  the 
(xreen  Isle.  (4*9)     And  although  this  noble  hospitality 

(46)  Wisd.  viii.— 1  Cor.  i.  25.  29. 

(47)  Rom.  viii.  28. 

(48)  S.  Aug.  Lib.  de  corrept  et  grat.  c  i. 

(49)  Eraiit  ibidem  (in  Hibernia)  eo  tempore  multi  Nobilium  simul  et  mc- 
diocrium  de  gente  Anglorum,  qui  tempore  Finani  et  Colmani  episcopcrum 
relicta  insula  patria,  vel  divinae  lectionis,  vel  continentioris  vitaj  gratia  illo 
.secesserant.  .  .  .  Quos  omues  Scoti  libcntissime  suscipientes,  victum  eis 
i]uotidianum  sine  precio,  libros  quoque  ad  legendum,  et  magisterium  gratai- 
tum  praebcre  cura1)ant  Yen.  Beda.  Eccl.  Hist.  Gent.  Anglorum  lib.  iii  c.  27. 


30 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


has  been  sadly  requited,  the  charity  of  the  Iriah  heart 
is  as  inexhaustible  as  their  fertile  soil.  The  Irish  are 
again  assisting  England  in  England,  and  the  Irish  in  Ire- 
land are  praying  for  the  English,  and  the  Irish  in  all  parts 
of  the  globe  will,  we  trust,  also  discharge  the  same  holy 
office  of  fraternal  love.  And  may  the  Almighty  God, 
in  His  infinite  mercy,  listen  to  their  supplications  ! 

For,  after  all.  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren,  the  great  bulk 
of  the  English  population,  have  many,  very  many  claims 
upon  our  charitable  sympathy.  They  are  themselves  the 
victims  of  a  long,  artful,  and  unscrupulous  system  of  de- 
ception and  calumny.  And,  if  it  frequently  happens  that 
they  blaspheme  the  things  which  they  know  not  (50)  it 
should  excite  our  pity  rather  than  our  surprise.  For, 
only  conceive  a  member  of  any  of  the  Protestant  Com- 
munions in  that  country,  trained  up  from  his  infancy  in 
the  belief  that  Catholics  hate  him  ;  that  they  would  think 
it  no  crime  to  injure  him  ;  that  they  have  no  respect  for 
the  sanctity  of  an  oath ;  that  they  can  obtain  pardon  of 
any  transgression  for  money ;  that  they  can  get  leave 
to  commit  any  sin  they  please,  by  paying  a  stipulated 
sum ;  that  with  them,  the  end  justifies  the  means,  no 
matter  how  wicked  ;  that  they  make  a  Divinity  of  the 
Blessed  Mother  of  God,  and  worship  her  as  such ;  that 
they  adore  Angels  and  Saints,  or  oflfer  them  the  homage 
which  belongs  to  the  Deity  alone  ;  that  they  place  their 
hopes  of  salvation  in  their  priests,  or  in  long  prayers, 
fasting  and  superstitious  practices,  and  not  in  the  merits 
of  Jesus  Christ's  Passion  and  Death ;  that  they  make 
idols  and  images,  and  set  up  relics,  to  adore  and  pray  to 
them,  as  if  they  were  God  Himself;  that  they  hate  or 
fear  the  Bible,  are  not  permitted  to  rearf  it,  and  prefer 
human  traditions  before  its  heavenly-inspired  words ; 
that  their  priests  preach  to  them  in  unknown  tongues, 
and  that  they  have  blotted  out,  or  concealed  one  of  the 
commandments,  lest  the  deluded  people  should  see  the 

(50)  Jude  i.  10. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


31 


s; 
es, 
he 
he 


danger  of  idol-worship ;  that  the  Pope  can  jrivc  them  a 
dispensation  to  do  any  thing  howsoever  wicked,  provided 
it  be  for  the  good  of  the  Church  ;  that  there  is  a  regular 
list,  kept  in  a  Book  at  Uome,  of  the  prices  of  every  sin, 
cither  for  leave  to  commit  it,  or  for  its  pardon  after  com- 
mission— in  a  word,  that  their  whole  Religion  is  nothini^ 
but  conjuration  and  deceit,  outward  pomp  and  unmean- 
ing ceremony,  without  any  adoration  in  spirit  and  in 
truth  ;  conceive  a  Protestant  imbued  with  these  false  no- 
tions from  his  very  infancy,  imbibing  them  with  his  mo- 
ther's milk ;  hearing  them  from  his  parents,  family  and 
teachers;  reading  them  in  his  school-books,  listening  to 
them  assiduously  from  his  Minister  in  the  pulpit ;  con- 
ceive, if  you  can,  all  this  terrible  action  and  reaction, 
of  interested  calumny,  for  several  successive  generations, 
and  though  you  may  be  shocked  and  grieved,  you  can 
hardly  be  surprised  at  the  anti-Catholic  fury,  which  has 
lately  raged  through  the  length  and  breadth,  of  the  once 
hallowed  land  of  an  Alfred,  and  an  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor. 

We,  therefore,  call  upon  you.  Dearly  Beloved  Bre- 
thren, "  through  the  bowels  of  the  mercy  of  our  God,*' 
(51)  to  offer  up  your  fervent  supplications  for  the  spiritu- 
al welfare  of  the  Enghsh  people,  and  for  their  speedy 
return  to  the  faith  of  their  forefathers.  Lift  up  your 
hearts  to  Him  "  who  sendeth  knowledge  as  the  light"  and 
beseech  Him  "  that  He  would  gather  together  the  tribes 
of  Jacob,  that  they  may  know  there  is  no  God  beside 
Him ;  that  he  would  hasten  the  time,  and  remember  the 
end,  that  we  may  declare  His  wonderful  works  !"  (52) 

It  is  our  desire,  that  ox  every  day  during  the  Lent 
your  petitions  should  ascend  to  Heaven  for  our  dear  bre- 
thren in  England,  and  that  on  every  Wednesday  through- 
out the  year,  you  should  continue  to  pray  for  the  same 
pious  purpose,  as  for  some  years  past  both  in  England 
and  Ireland,  as  well  as  on  the  Continent  of  Europe,  a 


(21)  Luke  i.78. 
(52)  Eccles.  xxiv.  35.   sxxvi.  10-  13. 


i 


m 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


day  in  the  week  has  been  selected  for  the  discharge  of 
tills  merciful  office..  We  wish  however  that  one  day 
Hhould  he  specially  set  apart,  and  we  consider  none  more 
Huituble'tlian  the  approaching  festival  of  Pope  St.  Gregory 
the  Great,  so  justly  styled  the  Apostle  of  the  English 
Nation,  who  "  converted  them  from  the  power  of  Satan 
unto  the  faith  of  Cliriat,"  (f)!})  and  whose  solicitude  for 
their  salvation  is  so  well  known  throughout  the  univer- 
sal Church. 

We  will,  therefore,  o\  Wednesday  the  Tweltii  Day 
OF  March  next  ensuing,  by  our  united  prayers  offer  a 
holy  violence  to  Heaven  on  behalf  of  that  Great  Nation 
in  whose  conversion  is  involved  the  eternal  happiness  of 
so  many  millions  of  the  human  race,  in  every  part  of  the 
known  world. 

On  that  day,  we  request,  that  the  Iloly  Sacrifice  of 
the  Mass  be  offered  up  by  every  Priest  in  the  Diocese  of 
Halifax,  and  that  the  faithful  will,  as  numerously  as  pos- 
sible, offer  up  their  devout  communions  on  the  same  day 
for  the  spiritual  regeneration  of  England.  And,  as  when  her 
holy  and  apostolic  missionary  St.  Augustine  approached 
King  Ethclbcrt  to  sohcit  permission  to  announce  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  to  his  subjects,  and  having  obtained  it, 
entered  the  metropolis  of  his  Kingdom  in  procession  with 
his  zealous  companions  "bearing,  accordin^^  to  their  cus- 
tom, the  Holy  Cross  and  image  of  the  Great  King,  Our 
TiOrd  Jesus  Christ  and  chaunting  the  Litany  with  harmoni- 
ous voice,  supplicated  the  Lord  for  the  eternal  salvation 
of  themselves  and  of  those  on  whose  account,  and  to 
whom  they  had  come"(54)  from  Glorious,  Everlasting 

(53)  De  quo  (Beato  Papa  Gregorio)  iios  convenit  (quia  nostram,  id  est* 
Anglorum  gentein,  (le  postestate  Satanse  ad  fidem  Christi  sua  industria  con*' 
vertit)  latior  in  nostra  historia  Ecclcsiastica  facere  sermonem,  quem  recte 
NOSTRUM  appcllare  possumus  et  debemus  Apostoli'M.  Ven.  Beda.  Eccl. 
Hiat.  lib.  ii.  c.  1. 

(54)  At  illi  noil  daemoniaca,  sed  divina  virtute  prsediti  veniebant.  Crucem 
pro  vexillo  ferontes  argentcam  et  imaginem  Domini  Salvatoris  in  tabula 
depictam,  Letaniasquc  canentes  pro  Bua  simul  et  eorum  propter  quos  et  ad  quos 
venerant,  salute  Kterna,  Domino  supplicabant Fertur  autem  quod  appro- 
pi  nquantescivitati,  more  suo,  cum  Cruce  Sancta  et  Imagine  Magni  Regis  Domi- 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


3a 


Rome,  so  wc,  under  the  standnrd  of  the  same  Cross,  will 
offer  our  Litanies  in  like  manner,  and  've  desire  that  the 
Litanies  of  the  Saints  should  bo  said  or  sung  before  Mass, 
on  the  twelfth  of  March,  in  the  Churches  of  the  Diocese 
of  Halifax,  and  that  all  those  who  shall  be  unable  to  assist 
at  the  Holy  Sacrifice,  should  recite  those  and  other  suit- 
able prayers  in  presence  of  their  families. 

Spare,  O  Lord ;  spare  Thy  People,  and  give  not  their 
ancient  and  glorious  inheritance  unto  reproach.  Regard 
the  prayer  of  the  humble  and  do  not  despise  their  petition. 
Look  from  Thy  high  sanctuary  and  hear  the  groans  of 
them  that  are  in  fetters,  and  release  the  children  of  the 
slain.  Arise,  and  have  mercy  on  England,  for  it  is  time 
to  have  mercy  on  it,  for  the  time  is  come.  For  in  days 
of  old,  the  stones  of  her  Sion,  have  pleased  thy  servants. 
Hearken  and  do;  for  it  is  not  for  Thy  justification  that 
we  present  our  prayers  before  Thee,  but  for  the  multitude 
of  Thy  tender  mercies.  Have  mercy  on  Jerusalem,  the 
City  which  Thou  hast  sanctified.  Fill  Sion  with  Thy 
unspeakable  words,  and  Thy  People  with  Thy  glory. 
Give  testimony  to  them  that  are  Thy  creatures  from  the 
beginning,  and  raise  up  the  Prophecies  which  the 
Former    Prophets   spoke  in   Thy  Name.    Reward 

THEM  THAT  PATIENTLY  WAIT  FOR  TlIEE,  that  Thy  FtOt 

phets  may  be  found  faithful,  and  hear  the  prayers  of  Thy 
servants!  (55) 

We  will  make  no  apology.  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren, 
for  the  protracted  length  of  this  Pastoral  Letter,  especially 
when  compared  with  that  of  last  year.  The  momentous 
subjects  of  which  it  treats,  and  the  critical  times  in  which 
we  live,  would  fully  justify  this  unusual  prohxity.  And, 
indeed,  we  must  confess  that  when  we  came  to  speak  of 

ni  nostri  Jesu  Christi  hanc  Letaniam  consona  voce  modularentur :  Depre- 
camur  te  Domine  in  omni  misericordia  Tua,  ut  auferatur  furor  Tuus  et  ira  Tua 
a  civitate  ista,  et  de  domo  Sancla  Tua,  quoniam  peccavimus  AUeluya  ! — V. 
Beda  Lib.  i.,  c.  25.  Would  that  the  memorable  and  fruitful  words  of  this  Lit- 
any of  St.  Austin  were  set  to  Music,  and  again  continually  chaunted  "con- 
6ona  voce"  in  every  Catholic  Church  in  England  ! 

(55)  Joel  ii.  17.    Fs.  ci.  passim.    Eccles.  xzxvi.  xxxv.    Daniel  ix. 


T 


34 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


r 


the  religious  condition  of  England,  and  her  present  alter- 
nations of  hope  and  fear,  our  heart  was  so  enlarged,  and 
our  sympathies  so  warmly  engaged  for  that  ancient  and 
most  interesting  Kingdom,  that  we  could  not  restrain  our 
feelings  within  ordinary  limits.     But,  we  might,  perhaps, 
be  more  reasonably  expected  to  say  a  word  or  two,  in  re- 
ference to  our  unwonted  discussion  of  some  topics,  not 
immediately  connected  with  our  beloved  flock,  and  a  cer- 
tain force  of  expression  which  we  have  designedly,  though 
not  willingly  employed.    The  recent  proclamation  of  war 
against  the  professors  of  our  creed,  and  the  Venerable 
Head  of  our  Church ;  the  floodgates  of  bigotry  which 
have  been  so  unexpectedly  let  loose;  the  persecution, 
more  bitter  than  that  of  the  dungeon,  the  axe,  or  the  gibbet, 
which  has  been  raised  against  our  dearly  beloved  fellow 
Catholics  in  England  by  wicked  "children  of  men  whose 
teeth  are  arms  and  arrows,  whose  tongue  is  as  a  sharp 
sword,  and  under  whose  lips  is  the  venom  of  asp8"(56) — 
we  speak  not  of  the  deluded  multitude,  but  of  the  selfish, 
interested,  and  unscrupulous  firebrands  who  have  excited 
this  unholy  clamour — all  these  declarations  of  war,  we 
say,  must  arouse  every  faithful  son  of  the  Church,  not  in 
the  United  Kingdom  alone,  but  throughout  the  world,  and 
especially  in  all  the  territories  of  the  British  Empire. 
When  the  prince  of  darkness  marshals  his  satellites  against 
Truth,  "the  children  of  light"  cannot  remain  inactive. 
At  such  a  moment,  the  Watchmen  on  the  towers  of  Israel 
should  be  particularly  vigilant,  and  never  cease  to  cry 
out  day  or  night  (57)  to  summon  the  rh,impions  of  the 
Church,  and  the  "domestics  of  faith,"  and  to  arm  them 
with  those  invincible  weapons  whose  edge  is  never  blunt- 
ed, and  which  were  never  known  to  fail.     Yes,  the  cause 
of  His  Eminence,  Cardinal  Wiseman,  and  of  his  Vene- 
rable Brethren  in  the  English  Hierarchy,  and  their  devoted 
flocks,  is  OUR  CAUSE  as  well  as  theirs.      An  insult 

(56)  Ps.  Ivi.  5  xiii.  3. 

(57)  Isai.  Ixii.  &. 


PASTORAL  LKTTF.R. 


35 


offcrod  to  them  is  offered  to  us.  A  mnnacic  of  hon- 
ourable punisliment  wliieh  is  forged  for  them,  straiglit- 
ons  our  hmbs  also,  aud  becomes  for  us,  likewise,  an 
instrument  of  j?Iory.  As  members  of  the  same  mystic 
Body,  of  which  Christ  is  the  Head,  we  must  quiver  with 
anguish,  and  glow  with  sympathy,  when  any  portion  of 
the  Church  is  struck  by  the  ruthless  hand  of  persecution. 
Tliose imaginary  lines  which  divide  the  globe  into  peoples 
and  kingdoms,  those  national  feelings,  national  habits, 
and  even  national  and  personal  antipathies,  if  you  will, 
which  sometimes,  unhappily  divide  the  children  of  the 
same  origin,  nuist  be  all  forgotten,  all  absorbed  in  the 
common  cause  of  our  Divine  and  persecuted  Faith.  For 
there  is  no  distinction  of  Jew  or  Greek,  of  Barbarian  or 
Gentile,  of  Englishman,  Irishman,  Scotchman,  American, 
or  Indian,  because  all  have  the  same  Lord  and  Com- 
mon Father,  the  same  Great  High  Priest,  tlie  same 
Visible  Head,  the  same  Faith,  the  same  Eternal  Redemp- 
tion, the  same  Everlasting  Inheritance,  the  same  blessed 
''expectation  of  that  life"  without  end  "which  God  will 
surely  give  to  those  who  never  change  their  faith  from 
Him."  (58)  The  more  that  our  beloved  brethren  in  Eng- 
land are  assailed,  the  more  dear  they  should  become  to 
us;  the  more  they  arc  made  a  bye-word  and  a  reproach 
for  the  name  of  Christ,  the  more  should  be  increased  our 
gratitude,  admiration,  and  love. 

Already,  in  the  very  threshold  of  the  fight,  they  have 
acquired  immortal  honour.  Their  venerable  and  zealous 
Bishops,  their  pious  and  indefatigable  Clergy,  their 
devoted  Nobility,  Gentry,  and  People,  have  stood  forward 
in  every  part  of  England,  to  defend  the  Pope,  to  sustain 
the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  to  stem  the 
torrent  of  vituperation  and  calummy,  and  to  confront 
their  cowardly  assailants  with  a  cool  and  undaunted 
courage,  worthy  of  so  great  a  cause.  Already,  under 
every  disadvantage,  even  the  hydra  of  bigotry  they  have 

(58)  Tobias  ii.  18. 


r 


36 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


half  shamed  back  into  its  horrid  den.  Already,  both  in 
England  and  Ireland,  have  the  eyes  of  ever  incere  Ca- 
tholic been  opened  to  contemplate  the  fearful  depth  of 
the  yawning  gulph  upon  which  any  of  them  would  stand, 
if  he  should  fondly  imagine  that  the  education  of  Catho- 
lic youth,  and  the  bright,  hopeful  destinies  of  Catholic 
Ireland  could  be  safely  confided  to  the  treacherous  hands 
of  the  scurrilous  scribe  who  penned  the  Durham  Manifesto, 
and  to  whom  we  ought  to  be  grateful,  if  not  for  his  classic 
vituperation,  so  redolent  of  the  gentleman  and  the  scho- 
lar, at  least  for  the  blind,  but  for  us  fc-tunate,  candour,  by 
which  he  has  compelled  us  to  speak  our  jealous  fear,  and 
by  which  he  has  excited  our  most  determined  opposition. 
He  truly  deserves  our  gratitude  because  he  has  reunited 
into  one  compact,  solid,  and  irresistible  mass  those  ele- 
ments of  Catholicity  which  had  been  scattered  since  the 
era  of  miscalled  Emancipation, — that  convenient  mask 
which  hollow  English  statesmen  have  now  worn  before 
the  world  for  two  and  twenty  yecrs,  and  by  which  they 
have  acquired  a  reputation  for  liberality,  which  is  proved 
to  be  unfounded,  by  past,  and  passing  events.  He  merits 
our  thanks,  because  he  will,  we  trust,  bring  us  back  to 
some  of  the  primitive  piety,  fervour  and  faith  which  were 
decaying  too  fast,  and  restore  us  that  saving  vigour  which 
treacherous  relaxation  might  enervate,  but  which  open 
persecution  could  never  break.  (59)  Ho  claims  our  gra- 
titude, because  although  he  has  seduced  a  few  inglorious 
deserters  from  the  standard  of  the  Cross,  he  has  at  the 
same  time,  infused  new  vigour  into  its  faithful  disciples. 
True  that  we  have  to  mourn  over  some  blighted  hopes, 
.'ind  reputations  once  famous,  but  now  shipwrecked  for 
ever.  But  whilst  we  weep  over  a  beautiful  ruin,  our 
indignation  is  also  excited  against  the  spoiler  who  has 
laid  it  waste.  Hovrever,  in  return  for  this,  thi  Premier 
of  England  has  ^roused  numbers  from  the  treacherous 
indolence  of  unsuspecting  Capua,  and  driven  them  once 

(69)  Nunf  tentant  otiaquos  bella  non  fregerunt.    S.  Ambros. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


37 


^ 


more  to  the  tented  field,  and  the  stern  disciphne  of  the 
camp,  to  nerve  us  all  for  new  struggles,  and  to  prepare 
us  for  new  victories.  No :  liOrd  Russell,  you  can  never 
DESTROY  us.  We  boldly  defy  all  your  impotent  malice. 
We  will  not  bend,  nor  blench,  nor  quail,  before  your  penal 
apparatus.  We  have  learned  from  our  fathers,  how  to 
smile  at  those  paltry  resources  of  baffled  tyranny  and 
cunning.  You  have  now  thrown  down  your  gauntlet  of 
defiance  in  the  face  of  the  Ninety-Two  Prelates  of  the 
Church,  Eighty-Two  Bishops  and  Tsn  Archbishops 
throughout  the  British  Dominions  against  countless  thou- 
sands of  Priests,  and  millions  upon  millions  of  faithful 
people,  including  many  of  the  proudest  names,  and  most 
honoured  lineage  in  Europe.  And,  most  unwise  of  states- 
men, every  one  of  those  Bishops  is  a  power,  every  Priest 
is  a  jjotentate,  every  Congregation  is  a  legion ;  every 
ecclesiastical  unit  is  the  centre  of  a  moral  force,  which 
in  a  warfare  like  this,  waged  not  on  the  field  of  battle, 
but  within  the  domain  of  conscience,  will  defeat  not  only 
all  the  ^  ower  of  England,  but  all  the  puwer  of  the  world. 
Through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  great  American 
Repubhc,  as  well  as  wherever  the  English  tongue  is  spoken, 
you  have  arrayed  againsc  you,  all  the  noblest  instincts  of 
the  human  heart.  For  you  seem  to  have  forgotten,  that 
the  barbarous  policy  which  you  would  now  rentw,  has 
filled  the  United  States  with  millions  of  Catholic  exiles, 
and  their  immediate  descendants,  who  so  largely  swell 
that  tide  of  prosperity  so  ominous  to  England,  and  whose 
hereditary  instincts  it  was  most  impolitic  to  revive.  You 
seem  not  to  know,  that  the  despised  Irish,  whose  heathen- 
ism you  affected  to  bewail  in  terms  of  such  contemptuous 
insolence,  and  maudlin  sentiment,  in  your  famous  Pastoral 
to  the  Episcopal  Dives  of  Durham,  (meet  recipient  of  so 
Evongehcal  a  Homily)  have  millions  of  countrymen,  and 
kindred,  and  friends,  at  thi^,  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The 
Archbishop  of  the  Empire  City,  the  rich  capital  of  all 
America,  is  an  Irishman.     So  is  the  Archbishop  of  St. 


38 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


If 


Louis,  in  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Cincinnati  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio.  The 
Bishops  of  Philadelphia,  of  Pittsburg,  of  Buffalo,  of  Ar- 
kansas and  Texas,  of  Hartford  in  the  Nortn  and  Savannah 
in  the  South,  are  all  Irishmen.  The  Bishops  of  Boston, 
of  Albany,  and  other  important  sees  are  the  sons,  or  the 
descendants  of  that  noble  Irish  Nation  which  you  have 
so  shamefully  insulted.  And  let  me  inform  you,  that  the 
name  of  those  venerable  Prelates  is  their  eulogy,  and 
that  not  only  by  the  zealous  priests  and  faithful  people 
who  are  ruled  by  their  advice,  and  influenced  by  their 
opinions,  are  th  ey  respected  and  loved,  but  also  by  the 
most  eminent  citizens  of  all  creeds  in  that  mighty  Repub- 
lic. It  is  not  necessary  to  remind  you  of  the  Irish 
Bishops,  Priests,  and  People  in  the  colonial  territories  of 
England — of  the  Archbishop  of  Bengal  in  the  East,  or 
the  Archbishop  of  Trinidad  in  the  West  Indies.  At 
Bombay,  at  Mai'ras,  at  Hyderabad;  amongst  the  classic 
islands  of  Greece,  as  well  as  at  the  Pillars  of  Hercules ; 
on  the  southern  extremity  of  Africa,  no  less  than  in  the 
vast  plains  of  Australia  ;  amidst  the  swamps  of  British 
Guiana,  and  the  rocky  coasvs  of  Newfoundland,  at 
Kingston  on  Lake  Ontario  and  St.  John's  in  the  Bay  of 
Fundy,  at  each,  and  all,  you  will  encoui'ter  an  Irish 
Bishop  whose  country  you  have  derided,  and  what  is 
still  more  galling,  whose  venerable  Religion  you  have 
traduced,  together  with  its  illustrious  Head. 

You  may  commence,  then,  your  intolerant  warfare. 
But  every  blow  you  strike,  in  your  cowardice,  at  our 
unoffending  Cathohc  Brethren  in  England,  will  re-echo 
through  the  world.  The  clanking  of  every  new  fetter 
you  impose  (if  indeed  our  gigantic  hmbs  have  not  long 
outgrown  the  hateful  gyves  which  your  littleness  would 
forge)  will  ring  through  the  Universe.  You  have  weld- 
ed us  into  a  wall  of  brass,  against  which  all  the  cannon 
of  England,  and  all  the  thuiidcrbolts  of  the  world,  will 
be  directed  in  vain.    You,  the  creature  of  yesterday. 


I 


PASTORAL  L^.TTER. 


39 


I 


who,  if  you  remembered  the  inglorious  origin  of  your 
titles  and  your  wealth,  ought  to  have  shrunk  from  all 
contact  with  the  Catholic  Church,  as  the  murderer 
shrinks  from  the  ghost  of  his  victim, — ^you,  who  should 
remember  that  there  are  families  in  England  unto  whom 
sacrilegious  rapine  (60),  political  treachery,  and  hollow 
patriotism,  have  descended  as  an  heirloom — ^you  have 
dared  to  insult  a  Sovereign  whose  throne  was  establish- 
ed in  the  time-honoured  reverence  of  the  miUions  of 
Christendom  for  ten  centuries  before  William  the  Nor- 
man waved  his  victorious  banner  over  the  field  of  Hast- 
ings ;  you  have  hurled  your  foul  alliterations  against  the 
anointed  Head  of  nearly  Two  Hundred  Millions  of 
spiritual  subjects,  a  Prince,  before  whose  glorious  pre- 
^lecessors,  a  Constantine,  a  Clovis,  and  a  Charlemagne, 
iiad  bent  in  reverence  :  you  have  launched  your  impious 
edict  against  the  holy  Representative  of  that  Fisherman 
of  Galilee  whom  Nero  crucified,  but  whose  successor, 
after  all  the  vicissitudes  of  time,  the  fall  of  dynasties, 
the  wreck  of  nations — aye,  and  in  spite  of  all  the  dis- 
graceful machinations  of  your  government — is  still  seat- 
ed on  the  throne  of  the  Cajsars.  For  many  years  past, 
your  terrible  policy  has  helped  to  convulse  Europe,  and 
to  replunge  it,  with  all  its  boasted  civilization,  into  the 
darkest  depths  of  barbarism.  You  have  weakened  the 
revc  o'  (  for  authority,  disturbed  the  landmarks  of  social 
orcle-  Mid  poisoned  the  sources  of  all  good  government. 
You  havj)  in  other  countries,  encouraged  principles, 
which  at  home  you  repress,  with  the  bullet  and  the  bay- 
onet, and  which  if  suffered  to  prevail  in  England,  would 
not  leave  the  Crown  of  our  Beloved  Sovereign  worth  a 
pin's  fee.  Spain  and  Portugal,  for  many  long  years, 
have  been  weeping  tears  of  blood,  which  were  express- 
es: irom  their  agonizing  bosom,  by  your  selfish  and  un- 
cLrutian  policy.  In  Sicily,  which  was  always  a  para- 
dise when  compared  to  hapless  Ireland,  you  excited  the 

(60)  How  generally  true  the  pithy  adage  of  St.  Jerom :    Omnis  dives  eet 
injustus,  vel  hseres  injusti ! 


40 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


unfortunate  people  to  rebel  against  their  lawful  Sove- 
reign ;  and  when  they  were  suftering  all  the  consequen- 
ces of  their  outbreak,  under  the  very  muzzle  of  the 
British  Cannon,  the  guns  were  silent.  But  you  made 
yourself  amends  for  this  prudent  policy,  in  presence  of 
a  French  Fleet,  by  your  magnificent  conquest  of  Greece, 
and  your  cowardly  attack  on  the  character  of  the  King 
of  Naples  and  the  peace  of  his  fair  Kingdom,  and  the 
reckless  unscrupulous  manner  in  which  your  mercenary 
press  almost  overwhelmed  him  with  deliberate  false- 
hoods— a  press,  whose  satanic  fury  for  the  last  three 
months  has  lowered  the  reputation  of  your  country  in 
the  eyes  of  Europe,  an  V  perchance,  may  force  wise 
men  to  question,  whether,  i  ^  all,  the  invention  of  print- 
ing be  not  as  great  a  scourge  as  a  blessing  to  mankind. 
Having  earned  the  malediction  of  Sicily  for  having  de- 
ceived and  betrayed  her,  you  played  the  same  treacher- 
ous game  in  Piedmont.  The  gallant  but  deluded  Prince, 
whose  hapless  fate  has  excited  all  our  sympathy,  you 
drove  to  the  brink  of  destruction,  and  having  uncrowned 
him  at  Novara,  you  abandoned  his  country  to  the  jus- 
tice, or  the  mercy,  of  that  ancient  ally  of  England,  whose 
friendship  you  had  repaid  by  a  truly  "  insolent  and  insi- 
dious" pohcy.  Throughout  the  rest  of  Italy,  including 
the  Roman  States,  and  not  even  excepting  the  mild  gov- 
ernment of  the  Duke  of  Tuscany,  you  have  fanned  the 
flame  of  civil  war.  In  the  Eternal  City  itself,  when  the 
Goths  and  Vandals  of  the  nineteenth  century  were 
pointing  their  cannon  against  the  majestic  Temples  of 
Religion,  and  the  venerable  seats  of  learning,  you  allow- 
ed the  Representative  of  the  United  States  to  claim 
and  secure,  for  his  great  country,  the  honour  of  protect- 
ing from  destruction  the  noble  College  of  Propaganda, 
whilst  in  the  Via  Condotti,  the  then  (alas !)  degraded 
flag  of  England,  which  you  were  bound  to  save  from 
such  dishonour,  was  waving  over  the  guilty  heads  of 
sacrilegious  robbers,  and  skulking,  cowardly  assassins. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


41 


Be  assured  that  these  things  are  well  knmvh,  and  deep- 
ly felt,  by  the  Sovereigns  whom  you  have  insulted,  and 
the  people  whom  you  have  betrayed.  Europe  now 
knows  too  well  the  fearful  spot  whence  are  sped  the 
deadly  arms  of  revolt,  as  well  as  the  poisoned  arrows  of 
calumny ;  where  the  dogs  of  war  are  kept  in  the  leash 
ready  to  be  unslipped,  and  the  firebrand  foxes  of  anti- 
social infidelity  are  ready  to  be  unloosed,  that  they  may 
again  run  their  desolating  race,  in  whatever  part  of  Eu- 
rope may  be  selected  for  the  wild  freaks  of  your  de- 
structive and  disastrous  policy.  And  after  having  already 
brought  home  to  almost  every  Court  and  Cottage  in 
Europe  all  the  horrors  of  civil  strife,  you  must  now,  for- 
sooth, get  up  another  humiliating  spectacle  to  degrade 
your  country  still  further  in  the  sight  of  the  assembled 
world,  and  to  feast  the  eyes  of  those  v.  uom  you  have 
so  cruelly  injured,  by  the  ignominious  and  deplorable 
exhibition  which  you  are  so  madly  preparing.  At  a 
period,  above  all  others,  when  the  amiable  and  gifted 
Consort  of  our  Beloved  Sovereign  is  about  to  realize 
his  noble  conception  of  uniting  the  Universe  in  one 
bond  of  peaceful  rivalry,  and  of  teaching  "  tribes  and 
tongues  and  people  "  by  a  closer  intimacy,  to  recognise 
the  lineaments  of  their  common  origin,  and  the  interests 
of  their  common  peace  j  at  a  time  when  our  Gracious 
Queen  herself  is  preparing  to  receive  with  regal  hospi- 
tality the  distinguished  foreign  personages  who  may  be 
attracted  by  curiosity  to  visit  her  splendid  metropolis ; 
at  such  a  moment,  when  every  domestic  quarrel  should 
be  hushed,  and  every  cause  of  intestme  division  remov- 
ed, that  those  from  afar  might  not  spy  the  nakedness  or 
weakness  of  the  land — you,  to  the  great  injury  of  the 
exhibition,  to  the  great  embarrassment  of  the  Sovereign, 
to  the  great  and  serious  danger  of  the  country,  have 
sent  out  your  mountebanks  and  Guys,  with  torch  and 
halter,  with  stuffed  Cardinals  and  fancy  Popes,  to  her- 
ald YOUR  Wonderful  Rival  Exhibition,  and  to  whet  the 


42 


PASTORAL,  LETTER. 


appetites  of  the  vulgar  for  your  bombastic  pantominc 
at  Westminister,  that  quixotic  tournament  against  ideal 
abstractions,  and  impalpable  substances  of  the  world  of 
spirits,  and  imaginary  windmills,  and  airy  objects  pro- 
vokingly  elusive  of  the  legislative  grasp,  and  internal 
opinions  which  no  laws  can  ever  reach,  and  deep  con- 
victions of  conscience,  which  no  human  enactments  can 
ever  disturb! 

These  are  austere  reproaches,  but  you  have  extorted 
them  yourself  by  your  most  extraordinary  and  unprovok- 
ed assault  on  the  Head  of  the  Catholic  Church,  on  the 
tenets  of  the  Catholic  Religion,  on  the  holy  practices  of 
its  sincere  professors.  You  have  provoked  them  by 
your  threats  to  England,  and  your  unchristian,  nay,  bar- 
barous attack  on  that  Irish  Nation,  which  is  hkely,  be- 
fore long,  to  add  to  the  family  another  mock  martyr, 
whose  immolation  will  happily  take  place  at  the  shrine 
of  public  opinion,  and  not  on  the  ghastly  platform  of 
Tower  Hill. 

As  a  loyal  subject  of  the  Crown,  whose  allegiance  is 
r  ost  disinterested, — as  a  Minister  of  Peace,  who  has 
always  preached  forbearance  and  loyalty,  both  by  word 
and  example, — as  a  Clergyman,  who  though  living  in  the 
midst  of  continual  excitement,  never  joined  any  political 
association  since  the  thirteenth  day  of  April,  1829,* — as 
a  citizen,  who  constantly  desired,  and  fervently  prayed, 
for  the  oblivion  of  all  past  animosities,  and  the  most 
cordial  and  friendly  feeling  between  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  United  Kingdom, — ^you  have  so  shocked,  and  griev- 
ed and  insulted  the  humble  individual  who  thus  address- 
es you,  that,  offering  violence  to  his  most  cherished 
feelings,  and,  making  one  reluctant  exception  to  the  ten- 
or of  his  life,  with  a  loyalty  which  looks  for  no  reward 
here  but  the  consciousness  of  having  performed  a  sa- 
cred duty,  he  ventures  to  claim  the  privileges  of  a  Bri- 
tish subject  as  well  as  yourself,  and  the  inalienable  right 

•The  day  when  Catholic    Emancipation  was  grantee.      Dr.  Walsh  had 
been  previously  a  Member  of  the  Catholic  Association. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


43 


of  self-defence  against  unjust  aggression.  And,  he  feels 
that  he  owes  it  to  his  country,  which  you  have  mahgned, 
to  his  creed,  which  you  have  aspersed,  to  his  Church, 
which  you  have  threatened,  to  liis  fellow-subjects,  whom 
you  have  distracted,  to  his  Sovereign,  whom  you  have 
embarrassed,  and  to  the  venerable  Head  of  his  Religion, 
whom  you  have  so  irreverently  and  wickedly  assaulted, 
to  address  you  this  open  rebuke,  to  arraign  you  at  the 
bar  of  public  opinion,  and  to  tell  you  before  the  world 
that  your  present  accidental  position  gives  you  no  right 
to  violate  all  the  courtesies  of  life,  and  all  the  charities 
of  religion,  in  so  impudent  and  disgraceful  a  manner. 
He  further  tells  you  that  he  enjoys  at  least  one  gratifi- 
cation in  the  performance  of  a  task  otherwise  so  painful, 
and  that  is,  the  consciousness  he  feels  that  the  Holy 
Faith  in  which  he  was  reared,  and  the  Catholic  "sys- 
tem" of  Education  which  he  received,  have  not,  thank 
God,  so  far  "debased  his  intellect,  or  enslaved  his 
soul  "*  as  to  prevent  him,  either  by  impotence  or  slavish 
fear,  from  inflicting  this  well-merited  chastisement  on  an 
offender  so  notorious — on  his  arrogance,  his  cruelty,  and 
his  folly.  He  will  be  more  than  rewarded,  if  the  Evan- 
gelical liberty  with  which  he  thus  admonishes  you  ("  your 
late  Parish  Priest"  (61)  having  given  you  up  in  despair) 
should  induce  you  to  respect  more  in  future  the  rights 
and  feelings  of  your  unoffending  neighbour. 

No,  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren,  our  calumniated  Reli- 
gion does  not  degrade  the  intellect  nor  enslave  the  soul, 
as  this  bitter  enemy  of  the  Church  of  God  has  so  falsely 
asserted.  Had  he  looked  around  him  in  his  own  coun- 
try, he  would  have  found  there,  as  well  as  in  every  part 
of  the  world,  the  most  indubitable  proofs  of  the  intel- 
lectual vigour  and  niontal  independence  of  the  Catholic 
system.  True,  we  are  not  permitted  to  remove  the  re- 
ligious landmarks  set  up  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles  ; 

•Expressions  applied  to  Catholicity  in  Lord  John's  Letter  to  the  Bishop 
of  Durham. 

(61)  Rev.  Mr.  Bennet. 


44 


PASTORAL  LETTER 


when  our  reason  is  once  convinced  that  vJod  lias  spoken, 
we  know  that  the  noblest  exercise  of  that  limited  faculty 
is  to  believe  His  unerring  revelation,  Who  is  the  infi- 
nite source  of  all  truth  and  wisdom.  In  fundamental 
dogmas  of  Holy  faith  we  are,  therefore,  all  on  the  same 
level ;  bishops,  priests,  and  people,  the  learned  doctor, 
the  most  erudite  scholar,  as  well  as  the  young  child  who 
cons  over  its  Catechism,  or  the  Lardy  son  of  toil,  who 
tells  his  evening  beads  in  the  simplicity  of  a  pious  heart, 
after  the  labour  and  burthen  of  the  day,  are  all  equal  in 
this  respect.  To  all  are  propounded,  for  their  unwa- 
vering belief,  those  sublime  and  incomprehensible  mys- 
teries which  God  has  revealed,  and  which  it  is  not  given 
to  man  to  fathom,  to  dispute,  or  deny.  Hence  all  rash 
and  empty  speculations  are  forbidden  in  the  sacred  re- 
gion of  Faith ;  but  in  all  other  sciences,  in  all  the  arts 
which  embellish,  civilize  or  adorn,  who  have  made 
greater  progress,  or  acquired  more  undying  renown, 
than  the  children  of  the  Catholic  Church?  Like  the 
early  Christians  described  by  St.  Cyprian,  it  is  better 
for  us  to  know  how  to  die,  than  to  dispute,  for  our  Faith. 
(62.)  The  Liberty  which  we  prize,  is  that  true  Liberty, 
which,  according  to  the  great  Doctor  of  the  Gentiles, 
that  genuine  disciple  of  heaven,  who  desired  to  know 
nothing  but  his  crucified  Lord,  is  a  holy  liberty  to  be 
found  only  in  the  True  Church,  in  which  the  spirit  of 
the  Lord  abides,  for  *•  where  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  is, 
there  is  Liberty."  The  ennobling  liberty  which  we 
value,  is  that,  one  of  the  first  constituents  of  whose 
divine  essence,  is  exemption  from  sin.  (63.)  We  freely 
abandon  to  others,  the  liberty  to  offend  God,  and  deny 
His  clearest  revelation;  the  liberty  to  calumniate,  to 
insult,  to  oppress ;  the  liberty  to  invade  our  neighbours' 
possessions,  to  disturb  their  peace,  and  destroy  their 
happiness  ;  the  liberty  to  frame  articles  and  creeds,  and 
force  them  down  the  reluctant  throats  of  those  who  are 

(62)  Sciebant  luori :  non  sciebant  disputare. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


45 


gravely  assured  at  tlie  same  time  that  they  are  quite 
free ;  the  liberty  to  forge  sham  constitutions,  and  import 
them  by  fire  and  sword  upon  peoples  and  nations, 
whether  they  desire  them  or  not ;  the  liberty  to  inter- 
fere, with  insulting  arrogance  and  swaggering  air,  in  the 
concerns  of  the  whole  world ;  the  liberty  to  fasten  a 
sinecure  Church,  gorged  with  the  tears  and  blood  of 
Christ's  Poor,  on  an  oppressed  and  impoverished  nation ; 
the  liberty  of  giving  a  new  version,  a  horrible  travesty,  of 
the  Gospel  Miracle  at  Naim,  by  shooting  a  poor  widow's 
son  at  her  own  door  for  a  few  shillings  tithe,  and  stripping 
a  second  disconsolate  widow  of  her  pot,  and  a  third  of 
her  blanket,  for  sixpence  of  tlie  same  cruel  and  degrad- 
ing impost ;  all  those  liberties,  together  with  changing 
creeds  thrice  in  a  year,  of  abusing  to-day  what  was 
reverenced  yesterday,  of  promoting  in  other  countries 
what  in  our  own  we  resist  unto  death,  and  punish  with 
imprisonment  and  exile  ;  the  liberty  of  domineering  over 
a  hapless  Church,  the  creature  and  slave  of  the  State, 
of  lecturing  her  ministers  and  mangling  her  creeds  by 
the  ukases  of  small-minded  laymen  from  official  bureaus. 
We  leave  these  to  the  taste  or  fancy  of  those  prodigies 
of  genius  whose  intellect  has  not  been  cramped  by  Ro- 
man fetters,  and  whose  souls  have  not  been  debased  by 
Roman  civilization,  whilst  we  shall  proudly  enjoy  that 
glorious  Liberty  of  the  children  of  God,  "  the  Liberty 
with  which  Christ  hath  made  us  free."  And  perhaps  at  no 
distant  period,  when  another  Spelman  shall  complete 
the  appaUing  History  and  fate  of  Sacrilege,  by  adding 
some  more  extinct  houses  to  the  long  list  of  Retributive 
Justice,  some  other  mind  degraded  by  the  "  system  "  of 
Rome,  and  "the  mummeries  of  superstition,"  might 
have  the  boldness  to  institute  a  comparison  between  the 
old  monkish  possessors,  even  of  Woburn  Abbey,  and 
its  subsequent  noble  inmates,  and  the  temerity  to  assert, 
that  on  the  score  of  intellect  and  utility,  of  learning  and 
patriotism,  the  poor  old  Monks,  with  all  their  "mum- 
meries "  had  borne  off  the  palm. 


m^ 


f 


46 


PASTOUAL  LETTEIL 


Do  not  be  sur[)ri.scd,  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren,  at  this 
unusual  warmth  of  sentiment  and  language,  for  this  is  a 
time  when  even  the  most  timid  should  speak  out  in  the 
cause  of  (vod  and  of  ITis  Holy  Church.  Whether  wo 
speak  or  be  silent,  it  is  impossible  to  please  the  canting 
riiarisces  and  crafty  politicians  of  the  day.  The  sly 
sinners,  who  would  swindle  us  out  of  our  constitutional 
rights  because  we  are  C'atholics,  can  neither  be  con- 
ciliated nor  appeased.  Of  this,  we  have,  since  recent 
demonstrations,  given  up  all  hope.  Their  deceptive 
notes  are  so  varied  and  discordant  that  they  can  never 
harmonize.  One  time,  these  pestilent  Catholics  arc 
iiaturally  slavish  and  unfit  for  liberty ;  at  another,  they 
have  arrived  not  only  at  Liberal  fervour,  but  at  intense 
Radical  heat.  Now,  they  are  brutally  ignorant,  and  arc 
kept  in  that  besotted  state  by  their  priests ;  and  again, 
they  are  schooled  into  all  kinds  of  dangerous  knowledge 
by  those  same  priests.  They  are  priest-ridden  to-day  ; 
to-morrow  they  are  throwing  oil*  the  sacerdotal  yoke. 
This  year  the  Catholics  are  quiet,  peaceable,  and  de- 
serve a  fair  share,  (which,  however,  they  have  never  yet 
received)  in  the  public  offices  of  the  country ;  before 
the  close  of  the  next,  a  shrill  blast  from  the  trumpet  of 
intolerance  calls  upon  all  true  Protestants  to  exclude 
them  from  all  place  and  power,  and  to  resist  every 
encroachment  of  Rome.  They  have  written  their  loyal 
sincerity,  in  their  blood,  on  a  hundred  fields  of  battle, 
but  they  are  still  more  suspected  than  the  felon  or  the 
traitor.  If  we  remain  quiet,  we  are  treated  as  cowards, 
and  kicked  and  cuflcd  according  to  every  caprice  of  our 
gracious  masters.  If  wc  speak  out  in  our  own  de- 
fence, straightw  ay  a  senseless  and  brutal  clamour  is  raised 
against  us.  If  our  })riests  go  into  society,  or  appear  in 
pubhc  to  vindicate  their  principles,  they  are  insulted 
and  denied  a  hearing ;  if  they  stay  at  home,  thoy  are 
ignorant  and  shrink  from  discussion.  If  they  abstain 
from  politics,  and  confine  themselves  to  the  preaching 


PASTOnAL  LETTEIl, 


47 


of  the  (Jospel,  their  forhearuncc  is  repaid  witli  inso- 
lence, and  their  zeal  made  a  suhject  of  ridicule ;  if  they 
interfere  in  political  concerns,  as  a  great  part  of  other 
Clergymen  do,  they  arc  firehrands  and  disturhcrs,  and 
our  ears  are  stunned  by  the  Protestant  reclamations  on 
every  side.  And  thus  does  Bigotry  pursue  her  ever- 
changmg  and  inconsistent  course  of  truth  and  falsehood, 
light  and  darkness,  censure  and  praise.  No  matter 
what  we  do,  it  is  impossible  to  please  them.  If  patient, 
we  are  rudely  struck  upon  the  face  ;  if  we  lift  a  word  in 
our  defence,  we  are  to  be  trampled  and  spit  upon.  If 
we  humbly  sue,  in  the  plaintive  tones  of  the  bondsman, 
for  the  smallest  share  of  the  many  privileges  accorded 
to  our  neighbours,  we  are  scornfully  laughed  at  for  our 
impudence;  if,  in  the  voice  and  attitude  of  freemen,  we 
ask  our  constitutional  rights,  and  invoke  the  impartial 
protection  of  the  Law,  the  cry  of  No  Popery  is  raised, 
and  all  the  dogs  of  war  are  let  slip  against  us. 

In  fact  our  case  is  so  parallel,  and  our  treatment  so 
similar  to  that  of  the  first  Christians  who  endured  the 
ordeal  of  Pagan  persecution,  that  there  are  few  words  in 
the  solemn,  ponderous,  and  overwhelming  arguments  of 
the  Apology  of  Tertullian,  which  we  might  not  use  with 
propriety  to  cover  our  enemies  with  confusion,  and  to 
repel  their  senseless,  inconsistent,  and  savage  assaults.(G4) 

The  flippant  calumniator  who,  some  five  years  since, 
denounced  the  Religious  Orders  of  our  Church,  those 
beautiful  bulwarks  of  the  citadel  of  truth  and  sanctity, 

(64)  Ita  utrumquG  ex  alterutro  rcdarguimus,  ct  ignorare,  illos  dum  oderunt, 

injuste  odisse,  dum  ignorant Malunt  nescire,  quia  jam  oderunt,  adeo 

quod  nesciunt  praBJudicant  id  esse,  quod  si  sciant,  odisse  non  potcrant :  quan- 
do  si  nullum  odii  debitum  deprehendatur,  optimum  utique  sit  desinere  injuste 
odisse  :  si  vero  de  merito  constet,  non  modo  nihil  odii  detrahatur,  scd  amplius 
acquiratur  ad  perseverantiam,  ctiam  justitiae  ipsius  auctoritate  ...  Si  certum 
est  denique  nos  nocentissimos  esse,  cur  a  vobis  ipsis  aliler  tractainur,  quam 
pares  nostri,  id  est  cacteri  nocentes  1  cum  ejusdem  noxae  cadem  tractatio  dc- 
beret  intervenire  .  .  .  Civilis  non  tyrannica  dominatio  vestra  est  apuc  tyran- 
nos  enim  tormenta  etiam  pro  poena  adhibentur  :  apud  tos  soli  quscstioni  tem- 
peratur  .  .  .  Hoc  primum  agentes  ut  homines  nollent  scire  pro  certo  quod 
se  nescire  pro  certo  sciunt.  Ideo  et  credunt  de  nobis  quae  non  pro?  atur,  et 
nolunt  inquiri,  ne  probentur  non  esse.  Ideo  torquemur  confitentes,  et  puni- 
mur  perse verantes,  ct  absolvimur  negantes,  quia  Nominis  praelium  est. 


48 


PASTOllAL  LETTEIL 


H 


whose  lcn'*aing  and  virtues  form  tlio  Hplciulid  "variety" 
of  "that  jj[il(le(l  array "(65)  with  whi(;h  the  Queenly 
SpouHe  of  Christ  is  invested,  the  cold  and  narrow  soul 
of  the  literary  pretender  who  had  the  hardihood  to 
decry  the  noblest  champions  of  civilization  and  science, 
the  brilliant  sons  of  St.  ljL;natius,  those  nuif^nificent  bene- 
factors of  mankind — this  arch  deceiver  who  when  pro- 
strate in  the  cold  shade  of  famis!iin<r  opposition  bawled 
out  so  lustily  against  the  iniquities  and  anomalies  of  the 
Irish  Established  Church,  and  gave  promise  of  such 
righteous  appropriations  from  the  squandered  property 
of  the  church  and  the  poor,  and  never  redeemed  his 
word,  cannot  again  impose  upon  the  Irish  people — will 
never  be  able,  in  time  to  come,  to  deceive  or  betray  the 
Catholics  of  the  Empire.  Undaunted  Ireland  has  spirit 
enough  yet  left,  to  spurn  her  coward  calumniator ;  to  de- 
prive him  of  further  opportunities  of  distracting  the 
United  Kingdom,  and  to  consign  this  political  Janus, 
who  prepares  in  the  same  Session  to  fetter  the  Christian, 
and  unbind  the  Jew,  if  not  to  all  the  obscurity  which  he 
so  richly  deserves,  at  least  to  the  congenial  platform  of 
Exeter  Hall,  where  his  great  talents,  enlightened  tolera- 
tion, and  deep  theological  research,  will  set  the  galleries 
in  a  roar,  and  drive  old  women  in  spectacles  into  ecstacy. 
In  that  temple  of  discord  and  vituperation,  he  might 
soon  attain  the  dignity  of  High  Priest,  and  when  the 
seething  cauldron  of  bigotry  and  unchristian  hate  should 
decrease  by  evaporation,  his  powerful  aid  in  supplying 
fresh  materials  might  be  requested  by  an  unanimous  re- 
solution of  all  the  discordant  tribes  and  tongues — those 
models  of  christian  truth  and  fraternal  love — who  con- 
gregate in  that  Tower  of  Babel. 

Yes,  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren,  the  cloven  foot  has 
been  now  exhibited,  the  serpent's  fork  has  hissed  in  our 
ears,  the  wolf  has  shown  his  teeth,  and  the  faithful  flock 
justly  alarmed  for  their  safety,  will  flee  for  refuge  beneath 

(66)  Ps.  xliv.  11. 


PAHTOIIAL  LKTTKH. 


49 


n 


las 
lur 
ck 
Lth 


the  puHtoral  crook  of  their  vigilant  and  courageous 
guides.  (C6).  In  Ireland,  in  I'jighind,  in  Scotland, 
throughout  every  partof  the  Colonial  Krnpire  of  IJritain, 
the  flock  will  he  more  closely  united  w  ith  their  renpec- 
tive  Pastors  ;  and,  whilst  rendering  in  all  things  temporal, 
entire,  undivided,  and  conscientious  allegiance  to  a 
Sovereign  whom  they  revere,  tlay  will,  in  the  voick  of 

THE  lI.liUSTIlIOUS    Plus,    AI.WAYH  llEC'iHiMSE    THE    VOICK 

OF  Peter,  THE  VOICE  OF  Christ.  Standing,  therefore, 
in  one  firm  phalanx  under  the  hanner  of  the  Cross,  and 
with  a  stern  determination  worthy  of  the  First  Martyrs — 
for,  to  break  or  falter  now  would  he  disastrous — they 
will  defeat  their  ancient  foes  ;  they  will  save  Christianity 
and  civilization  from  the  profane  gibes  of  the  infidel  and 
the  barbarian;  they  will  save  Knghind  herself  from  the 
disgrace  which  awaits  her,  if  she  should  su[>port  any 
longer  the  new  apostle  of  disunion,  or  conti  aie  that  un- 
holy warfare  to  which  she  has  been  sununoned,  with 
equal  judgment  and  disinterestedness,  by  that  haughty 
descendant  of  a  subsidized  Patriot. 

To  avert  such  calamities,  Dearly  Beloved  Brethren, 
redouble  your  fervour  and  your  supplications  in  the  ap- 
proaching Lent ;  and  when  you  pray  for  England,  as  we 
have  already  requested,  pray  with  confidence  in  the 
name  of  Christ  Jesus,  the  Only  atoning  Mediator 
between  God  and  man.  Pray  through  the  powerful  in- 
tercession of  that  August  Queen  the  Virgin  Mother  of 
God,  who  has  been  lately  so  much  outraged  by  a  blind 
populace  who  knew  not  what  they  did,  when  they  in- 
sulted that  Purest  and  Most  Exalted  of  Created  Beings. 
Invoke  the  suffrages  of  St.  Alban  the  First  Martyr  in 
Britain  who  died  for  that  One  Holy  Roman  Catholic 
and  Apostolic  Faith  which  is  now  so  blasphemed. 
Pray  through  the  intercession  of  St.  George,  that  valiant 
Soldier  of  the  Cross,  whose  proud  Banner,  which  once 

(66)  Plus  timeo    denies  lupi  quam  virgam  pastoris  S.  Bernard  de  off. 
Episc.  Non  est  tutum  vicino  serpente,  soranum  capere.  Id.  Ep.  242. 

4 


.ji 


50 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


'■) 


waved  gloriously  over  the  chiklrcn  of  the  Faith,  is  now 
in  danger  of  such  dishonour.  Pray  throuj^h  the  inter- 
cession of  the  Martyred  Winifred,  that  illustrious  vir- 
gin daughter  of  Britain,  and  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury, 
whose  Apostolic  courage  is  so  well  reflected  in  the 
person  of  his  most  Eminent  Successor.  Pray  that  the 
veil  of  delusion  may  be  taken  away  from  the  hearts 
of  our  dear  brethren,  the  people  of  England,  that  the 
'  gates '  of  salvation  may  be  *  opened  *  and  that  the 
*just  nation,  keeping  truth  may  enter  in*  to  the  heaven- 
ly abundance  of  their  Father's  House  :  that  *  the  old 
error  may  pass  away,  and  peace  '  be  restored  to  those 
*  who  have  patiently  waited  for  the  Lord  in  the  day  of 
His  judgments  '  that  *He  may  give  them  peace,  for  He 
has  wrought '  so  many  wonderful  works  for  them'  that 
they  may  *  seek  after  Him  in  distress '  and  that  even  in 
*the  tribulation  of  their'  present  'murmuring  His  in- 
struction may  be  with  them ;  that  as  a  woman  with 
child,  when  she  draweth  near  the  time  of  her  delive- 
ry is  in  pain,  and  crieth  out  in  her  pangs ;  so  they 
may  become  in  the  presence  of  tho  Lord  ;  that  their  dead 
men  may  live,  and  their  slain  rise  again  ;  that  those  who 
dwell  in  the  dust  may  awake,  and  give  praise,*  through 
the  '  lightsome  dew '  of  Divine  Grace ;  that  this  people 
of  God  may  *  enter  into  the  chambers '  of  their  heart, 
and  *  shut  the  doors '  of  the  world  and  all  human  respect 
upon  themselves,  and  *hide  themselves  a  little  for  a 
moment  until  the  indignation  pass  away.'  For,  '  Thou 
hast  been  favourable  lo  the  nation,  O  Lord,  Thou  hast 
been  favourable  to  the  nation.  O  Lord  our  God,  other 
LORDS  besides  Thee,  have  had  dominion  over  them; 
but  *  orJy  in  Thee  let  them  remember  Thy  Name.' — 
(67) 

Having  addressed  you  at  such  length,  Dearly  Beloved 
Brethren,    we   hope   ii  is  unnecessary  to  remind  you 


(67)  Isai.  xxvi.  passim. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


51 


that  in  addition  to  fasting  and  prayer  and  penitential 
works,  the  holy  season  of  Lent  is  also  set  apart  for 
preparing  ourselves  to  comply  with  the  annual  obliji^ii- 
tion  of  Confession  and  Easter  Communion,  as  com- 
manded by  the  Church,  under  the  most  grievous  penal- 
ties, in  the  Fourth  General  Council  of  Lateran  (C8). 
Wo  therefore  briefly  but  earnestly  beseech  you  not  to 
to  neglect  this  important  duty,  lest  you  subject  your- 
selves to  the  indignation  of  Ahnighty  God  and  tlu* 
hef'  viest  censures  of  His  Church.  Dispose  your  souls, 
therefore,  by  holy  retirement,  self  examination,  and  true 
compunction,  to  obtain  the  pardon  of  your  gracious  God 
to  whom  "an  afHicted  spirit  is  a  sacrifice,"  (69)  "Go 
and  show  yourselves  to  the  priest,"  (70)  by  a  good  con- 
fession that  you  may  be  cleansed,  from  the  leprosy  of 
sin:  for  as  the  Holy  Ghost  assures  us:  "He  tiiat 
hideth  his  sins  shall  not  prosper  :  but  he  that  shall  con- 
fess and  forsake  them  shall  obtain  mercy."  (71)  You 
will  thus  with  purified  minds  worthily  receive  the  pre- 
cious Body  and  Blood  of  the  Lord,  in  commemoratinu 
of  his  death,  and  as  the  nourishment  of  your  souls  t(» 
life  everlasting.  (72) 

We  will  always  therefore  "  bear  about  in  our  bodies 
the  mortification  of  Jesus  .  .  .  that  the  life  of  Jesus 
may  be  made  manifest  in  our  mortal  flesh."  (73)  We 
will  "through  the  blood  "of  Christ  in  his  holy  sacra- 
ments, "cleanse  our  conscience  from  dead  works,  to 
serve  the  living  God."  (74)  And  having  fasted  and  siit'- 
fered  in  imitation  of  our  Lord  and  Redeemei,  during 
the  Forty  Days  that  are  npproaching,  we  v  ill  deserve 
to  arise  at  the  great  festival  of  Easter,  to  a  new  life. 
and  to  participate  in  the  benefits  of  his  Glorious  Resur- 
rection. 


(08)  Canon.  Omnis  utriusque.     (69)  Ps.  i.    (70)  Mat.  viii.  4 — Luke  xviii.  1 1 " 
(71)  Prov.xxviii.  12.     (72)  John  vi.  59.     (73)  2  Cor.  ii.  10,  11.     (74)  }1«;!. 
ix.  14. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


"  Now,  the  God  ut' peace,  who  brought  again  from  the 
dead  the  great  Pastor  of  the  sheep,  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work,  that  you 
may  do  his  will ;  working  in  you  that  which  is  well- 
l)Jcasing  in  his  sight,  through  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  ia 
glory  for  ever  and  ever." 


+WILLIAM,  Bishop  of  Halifax. 

,  Nova  Sec 
Septuagesima  Suiu)ay,  1851. 


St.  Mary's,  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  ) 
" L        [ 


i 


the 
sus 

ell- 
1  is 


LETTER 


or   TBI 


BISHOP  OF  HALIFAX. 


CARDINAL  WISEMAN,  DR.  GUMMING,  AND  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLKJ 

EPISCOPAL  OATH. 


LETTER  OF  THE  BISHOP  OF  HALIFAX. 


{From  the  Acadian  Recorder.) 


CARDINAL  WISEMAN,  DR.  CUMMING,  AND  THE  ROMAN 
CATHOLIC  EPISCOPAL  OATH. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Acadian  Recorder. 

Dear  SiR,-In  tho  "Wilhner  &  Smith's  European  Times" 
of  Nov.  30,  which  arrived  in  IlaHfax  by  the  steamer  on 
this  day,  an  article  appears  on  the  subject  of  the  Oath 
taken  by  Roman  Cathohc  Bishops  Jind  Archbishops  at 
their  consecration,  whicli  is  calcubitcd  to  mislead  the  pub- 
lic at  large,  and  to  impeach  the  sincerity  and  good  faith 
of  His  Eminence  Cardinal  Wiseman.  Though  it  is  mo- 
rally certain  that  a  complete  and  satisfactory  refutation 
of  the  statement  and  ungenerous  insinuations  of  Dr.  Gum- 
ming has  been  already  published  in  England,  I  deem  it 
of  some  importance  that  these  charges  should  be  met 
directly  on  their  appearance  at  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
The  Article  in  Willmer  may  be  reproduced  in  a  thou- . 
sand  different  forms  through  Dut  this  continent ;  and  as  I 
happen  to  be  the  first  Prelate  in  British  North- America 
under  whose  notice  it  has  come,  perhaps  you  will  be  good 
enough  to  allow  me,  through  the  medium  of  your  jour- 
nal, to  place  the  question  in  its  true  light  before  the  Ame- 
rican public.  I  am  the  more  induced  to  do  so  on  the 
present  occasion,  when  I  remember  that  a  very  few  years 
ago  one  of  the  journals  of  this  city  publi-shcd  an  atrocious 
version  of  the  EpiscopalOath  in  the  Church  of  Rome — 
accused  me  hy  name  of  having  sworn  it  at  my  consecration, 
and  held  me  up  to  the  execration  of  my  fellow-citizens. 
This,  and  similar  charges  of  equal  improbability  and  false- 
hood, I  passed  over  in  silence  at  the  time ;    but  as,  at 


56 


LETTER  OF  THE 


present  an  attempt  may  be  made  to  corroborate  it  by  the 
narrative  of  Dr.  Cumming,  I  proceed  at  once  to  dispose 
of  the  cahi.mny  by  a  simple  statement  of  facts. 
The  article  alluded  to  is  as  follows : — 


CARDINA.L  WISEMAN  AND  DR.  CUMMINO. 

"At  one  of  his  lato"  lectures  at  the  Hanover-rooms,  relating  to  the  oath  taken 
by  the  Romish  Archbishops  on  their  receiving  the  archiepiscopal  ;>a//jMm  Dr. 
Cumming  remarked  : — 

"First  of  all,  let  mo  presume,  that  when  the  cardinal  was  made  an  archbishop 
'  e  received  Xhepallium,  'jefore  receiving  which  he  repeated  a  solemn  oath  which 
will  bo  found  in  the  Prntijicalc  Rofnamtm.  I  have  the  hook,  and  carefully  ex- 
amined all  that  he  must  say ;  it  is  the  edition  of  Clement  VIII,,  Antwerp  edition, 
1627.  One  clause  of  the  oath  is  a  follows : — '  Ilaireticos,  scismaticos  et  rebelles, 
Domino  nostro,  vel  success«)ribu3  praedictis,  pro  posse  per  sequar  et  impugnabo.' 
This  is,  he  solemnly  swore  on  his  solemn  oath  (I  wish  thus  to  prepare  you  for 
his  reception:)  'AH  heretics  (that  is,  Protestants),  schismatics  (that  is,  members 
of  the  Greek  Church,  that  separated,  as  they  say,  from  Rome),  and  rebels 
against  our  Lord,  or  his  aforesaid  successors,  I  will  persecute  and  attack  to  the 
utmost  of  my  power.'    Tiie  correct  translation,  I  believe  o(pro  posse.''^ 

On  reading  the  above.  Cardinal  Wiseman  invited  Dr.  Cumming  to  inspect 
at  his  house  in  Golden-square,  the  oath  which  he  had  taken,  stating,  at  the  same 
time,  that  the  said  persecuting  clause  "is  omitted  in  the  oath  taken  by  all  bishops 
and  archbishops  subject  to  the  British  Crown.  Dr.  Cumming,  in  a  letter  to 
the  Times,  gives  the  following  account  of  the  interview:^ — 

"I  accepted  the  invitation,  and  this  day,  in  company  with  Sir  J.  Heron  Max- 
well and  Admiral  Vernon  Harcourt,  I  inspected  the  cardinal's  Pontifical  sub- 
mitted to  me  at '  the  episcopal  residence,  Golden-square.'  In  the  Pontifical 
thus  laid  before  me  I  found  in  the  bishop's  oath  the  very  words  I  quoted,  and  in " 
bold  type,  but  with  a  line  of  black  ink  drawn  over  the  passage  with  a  pen,  appa- 
rently very  recently  used,  leaving  the  words  disclaimed  by  the  cardinal  suffi- 
ciently  legible,  but  without  any  initials  or  other  verification  of  any  sort.  On 
the  fly  leaf  at  the  beginning  of  the  book  I  found  the  same  oath  in  MS.,  without 
the  persecuting  (clause,  and  without  initials  or  other  verification,  and  apparently 
very  recently  written.  But  the  startling  fact  remains.  On  referring  to  the  oatli 
required  to  be  taken  by  an  arcbbishop  (Dr.  Wiseman  having  been  recently  made 
one)  on  receiving  the  pallium,  as  given  at  page  88  (Paris  edition,  1664)  on  the 
Pontifical  thus  submitted  to  me  by  order  of  the  cardinal,  I  found  the  persecuting 
clause — '  llaireticos  sohismaticos  et  rebelles  Domino  nostro  vel  successoribus 
praedictis  pro  posse  persequar  et  impugnabo,'  printed  in  bold  type  without  any 
alteration,  emendation,  or  correction  whatever,  constituting  in  the  Archbishop 
of  Westminster's  own  Pontifical  part  and  parcel  of  the  oath  which  every  arch- 
bishop on  receiving  the  pallium,  as  I  have  already  stated,  must  take.  The  dis- 
covery needs  no  comment  beyond  my  expression  of  surprise  that  the  cardinal 
should  have  had  the  temerity  to  invite  me  to  inspect  his  Pontificale  Romamim.'''' 

Now,  I  have  taken  the  same  Oath  at  my  Consecration 
as  Dr.  Wiseman.    I  have  a  copy  of  that  Oath  in  manu- 


BISHOP  OP  HALIFAX. 


57 


script,  taken  several  years  ago  from  the  Roman  original 
in  po&(?ession  of  His  Grace  the  Archbishop  of  Dubhn, 
and  authenticated  by  him.  Having  been  consecrated  by 
Dr.  Murray,  the  Oath  was  sworn  before  him,  and  I  can 
assure  your  readers — any  one  of  whom  may  have  occu- 
lar  demonstation  of  the  fact — that  the  manuscript  which 
contains  it  is  not  even  "apparently  very  recently  writ- 
ten." In  this  Oath  the  obnoxious  clause  does  not  ap- 
pear, because  it  was  never  sworn  by  me,  nor  has  it  been 
sworn  since  1791  by  any  Catholic  Bishop  under  the  Bri- 
tish Crown ;  nor  before  that  period  in  the  odious  sense 
attributed  to  it  by  the  enemies  of  the  Catholic  Church.* 

The  reasons  for  its  omission  as  well  as  for  the  addi- 
tion of  a  final  clause  to  the  Catholic  Episcopal  Oath  in 
the  British  Dominions,  were  transmitted  with  the  revised 
form  of  the  Oath  itself  to  the  Irish  Primates  on  the  23d 
of  June,  1791,  by  the  then  Cardinal  Prefect  of  Propa- 
ganda. 

His  Letter  testifies  that  a  Representation  had  been  made 
by  the  Irish  Metropohtans  to  the  Holy  See,  *that  from 
the  ignorance  or  dishonesty  of  some  persons  {qiiorumdam 
mscitia  aut  improhitate)  certain  expressions  in  the  form 
of  the  Oath  prescribed  by  the  Roman  Ritual  to  be  taken 
by  Bishops  at  their  consecration,  and  hy  Archbishops  on 

*  Dr.  Walsh  having  found  that  a  part  of  this  assertion  was  inexact,  caused  the 
following  paragraph  to  be  inserted  in  the  Acadian  Recorder  of  the  28th  of  De- 
cember : — 

The  Roman  Catholic  Episcopal  oath. — In  reference  to  this  subject,  we  are 
requested  by  the  Bishop  of  Halifax  to  state  that !:  iving  made  a  diligent  search 
to  ascertain  the  precise  period  at  which  the  Amended  Form  of  Oath  appointed  . 
to  be  taken  by  the  Irish  Bishops,  in  1791,  was  also  allowed  to  be  taken  by  the 
Four  Vicars  Apostolic  in  England,  he  has  discovered  that  it  was  about  the 
month  of  April,  1818,  when  it  was  permitted  by  Pius  VII.  As  it  has  been 
complained  of  by  Dr.  Gumming  and  others,  that  the  change  in  the  Oath  was 
never  announced  to  the  public  by  any  competent  authority.  Dr.  Walsh  states 
that  it  was  duly  announced  to  the  world  in  a  solemn  and  authentic  manner  so 
long  ago  as  the  year  1793,  in  a  "Pastoral  Address  from  the  Most  Rev.  Dr.  Troy, 
R.  C.  Archbishop  of  Dublin,"  pqd.  published  by  "Coghlan,  Duke-St.,"  in  which 
Dr.  Troy  gives  the  amended  Oath  in  Latin  and  English,  and  the  correspondence 
between  the  Irish  Bishops  and  the  Holy  See  upon  the  subject.  Thus  the  change 
in  the  Oath  was  authenticated  by  one  of  the  highest  dignitaries  of  the  Church, 
and  published  to  the  United  Kingdom  probably  some  years  before  Dr.  (hum- 
ming was  born.  i 


ss 


LETTER  OP  THE 


It 


receiving  the  Pallium^  have  been  distorted  into  a  false 
meaning  {in  alienum  sensiim  detorquere),  &c.  Where- 
fore they  humbly  requested,  if  it  should  appear  expedient 
to  His  Holiness,  that  he  would  vouchsafe  to  apply  a  re- 
medy by  some  act  of  his  Apostolic  vigilance.' 

And  accordingly  the  Cardinal  Prefect  and  Secretary 
of  Propaganda  testify  that  at '  an  Audience  of  His  Holi- 
ness Pope  Pius  VI.  on  the  9th  day  of  June,  1791,  he  .vas 
graciously  pleased  to  grant  that  the  Bishops  and  Arch- 
bishops might  use  the  same  form  of  Oath  which  was  ta- 
ken by  the  Archbishop  of  Mohilow,  in  Russia. '  This 
Oath  is  then  recited  at  length  without  the  obnoxious 
clause,  which  was  perverted  from  its  natural  meaning  by 
ignorance  and  malice,  and  as  if,  to  prevent  all  further  ca- 
lumny on  the  subject,  the  Form  of  the  Oath  concludes 
with  these  words : — *  Haic  omnia  et  singula  eo  inviolabi- 
lius  observabo,  quo  certior  smn,  nihil  in  illis  contineri  quod 
fidelitati  mea)  erga  Serenissimum  Magnse  Britannise  et 
Hiberniae  Regem,  Ejusque  ad  Thronum  successores  de- 
hite  adversari  possit.  Sic  me  Deus  adjuvet,  et  hajc  sancta 
Dei  Evangelia.  Ita  promitto  et  spondeo;'  that  is,  'I  will 
observe  all  and  singular  of  these  things  the  more  inviola- 
bly, as  I  am  firmly  conviiiced  that  there  is  nothing  contain-  . 
ed  in  them  which  can  be  contrary  to  the  allegiance  I  owe 
to  the  Most  serene  King*  of  Great  Britain  in  Ireland, 
and  to  his  successors  to  the  Throne.  So  help  me  God, 
and  these  Holy  Gospels  of  God.  This  I  promise  and  en- 
gage. 

I  should  hope  that  this  explicit  and  open  declaration  . 
would  fully  satisfy  every  unprejudiced  mind  that  the  ig- 
norant or  wilful  charge  respecting  the  Episcopal  Oath  has 
no  foundation  whatsoever,  and  that  it  may  be  classed 
with  the  long  catalogue  of  similar  accusations  which  are 
pubhshedfrom  time  to  time  by  persons  who  affect  to  know 
what  we  believe  better  than  we  do  ourselves,  who  as-" 


*  To  the  Most  Serene  Queen  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  her  saccea- 
%i)X%  &c.,  in  the  Oath  which  I  took. 


BISHOP  OF  HALIFAX. 


M 


scribe  to  our  language  a  meaning  which  we  disavow, 
iuid  who  repeat  their  odious  assertions  with  as  much 
confidence  as  if  tlioy  had  not  been  solemnly  disproved 
over  and  over  again  throughout  every  part  oi'  the  British 
empire. 

Of  course  the  Continental  Editions  of  the  Ponti/kale 
liomanum  which  have  been  all  published  in  Catholic  coun- 
tries contain  the  original  Oath  whoso  obnoxious  clauses 
are  understood  in  their  natural  and  obvious  meaning  by- 
Foreign  Governments.  No  Edition  of  the  Book  has  been 
published  in  England  or  Ireland ;  and  hence  the  necessity 
of  drawing  the  pen  over  the  disputed  clause,  and  of  insert- 
ing in  the  fly-leaf  the  Oath  as  amended  and  permitted 
by  Pope  Pius  VI.  in  1791.  I  have  seen  this  done  myself 
in  Pontificals  which  were  used  by  Prelates  who  were  sub- 
j  ects  of  the  British  Crown. 

The  sneers  and  insinuation  of  Dr.  Cumming  in  his  Let- 
ter to  the  Times  are  thus  disposed  of;  the  unsullied  inte- 
grity and  high  honour  of  Cardinal  Wiseman  are  vindica- 
ted, and  the  virtual  impeachment  of  the  allegiance  of  the 
Catholic  Episcopacy,  who  by  teaching  and  example  have 
proved  their  loyalty  to  their  Sovereign  even  in  those 
times  when  the  reciprocal  duties  of  Sovereign  were  vio- 
lated or  forgotten,  is  denied  and  refuted. 

With  regard  to  the  obnoxious  clauses  themselves,  I 
shall  be  brief,  but  conclusive.  I  shall  not  load  your  co- 
lumns with  copious  quotations  from  ancient  Latin  writ- 
ers on  the  literal  meaning  of  the  verb  Perseqiwr,  which  is 
understood  by  every  classical  scholar,  but  I  shall  give  the 
signification  of  the  word  in  the  former  Episcopal  Oath  as 
it  has  been  explained  by  the  authority  and  command  of 
his  Holiness  in  the  Letter  of  the  Cardinal  Prefect  of  Pro- 
paganda in  1791,  to  the  Bishops  of  Ireland. 

"  The  words  persequar  and  impugnabo  are  maliciously 
interpreted  as  'a  signal  of  war  against  heretics,  authoris- 
ing persecution  and  assault  against  them  as  enemies, 
whereas  the  pursuit  and  opposition  which  the  Bishops 


,f 


(K) 


LETTER  OF  THE 


undertaken  arc  to  bo  undcrHtood  uk  referring  to  their  soli- 
citude and  cflbrts  in  convincing  heretics  of  tlieir  errors, 
and  procurin<(  tlieir  reconciliation  with  the  Catholic 
Church.  His  Holiness  has  graciously  condescended  to 
substitut/;  for  the  ancient  form  of  Oath,  one  which  wag 
publicly  sworn  by  the  Archbishop  of  Mohilow  to  the 
great  satisfaction  of  all  the  Court  of  St.  Petersburgh,  in 
presence  of  the  TiUipress,  and  which  we  transmit  to  you 
in  this  Letter." 

From  the  same  remarkable  docunuuit  1  transcribe  the 
foUowing  Declarations  of  the  Holy  See,  which  ought  to 
have  put  an  end  for  ever  to  those  unchristian  calumnies. 

"The  Sec  of  Rome  has  never  taught  that  faith  is  not 
to  be  kept  with  the  heterodox : — that  an  Oath  made  to 
Kings  separated  from  the  Catholic  Communion  can  be 
violated; — that  it  is  lawful  for  the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  in- 
vade their  temporal  rights  and  dominions.  We  also  con- 
sider an  attempt,  or  design,  against  the  life  of  Kings  and 
Princes,  even  under  the  pretext  of  religion,  as  a  Horrid 
and  Detestable  Crime.'''' 

So  much  for  the  genuine  interpretation  of  the  Oath 
oven  as  taken  in  the  olden  time.  All  pretext  for  clamour 
on  the  subject  has  been,  however,  removed  for  the  last 
sixty  years. 

I  shall  say  little  of  the  crusade  now  preached  up  by 
the  Leader  of  the  Cabinet,  and  the  highest  functionary 
of  the  Law,  against  so  many  millions  of  llor  Majesty's 
loyal  and  faithful  subjects  at  honuj  and  abroad.  Their 
motives  for  so  unusual  a  departure  from  the  })roprieties 
of  Executive  and  Judicial  prudence,  I  forbear  to  scruti- 
nise. The  Letter  of  the  Premier  is  but  a  poor  speci- 
men of  consistent  character,  or  political  foresight.  As  for 
the  lawless  and  de[)lorable  threat  of  the  Lord  Chancellor, 
with  all  its  theatrical  accompaniments,  my  pain  on  read- 
ing it  was  mitigated  by  tlie  remembrance  that  in  other 
days  England  produced  another  Chancellor,  who  was 
the  ornament  of  his  age,  and  the  glory  of  his  country ; 


PI8H0P  OP  HALIFAX. 


61 


who,  in  times  that  tricnl  men's  souls,  preserved  unspotted 
the  Judicial  ermine ;  wlio,  uninfluenced  by  the  frowns  of 
power,  or  the  bhnd  passions  of  the  multitude,  pursued  the 
even  tenor  of  his  honourabh^  career  even  to  the  shedding 
of  iiis  blood;  nnd  whose  most  glorious  and  appropriate 
eulogy  n»ay  be  found  in  the  following  golden  worc'.s  of 
his,  alike  illustrative  of  the  tenderness  of  his  heart,  and 
the  genuine  principles  of  the  si  ill  persecuted  but  ever 
indestructible  Faith  for  which  he  died : — 

"Of all  who  evercamo  in  my  hand  for  heresy,  so  help 
me  God,  (^Ise  had  never  any  of  them  any  stripe  or  stroke 
given  them,  so  much  as  ajillip  on  the  foreheacV"* 

What  a  contrast  to  the  undignified  threat  against  Car- 
dinal Wiseman's  Hat !  I  suppose,  after  many  year's  ex- 
perience of  the  ability  of  the  head  which  so  deservedly 
wears  it,  in  the  various  controversies  which  His  Eminence  . 
has  conducted  with  so  much  literary  skill,  profound  eru- 
dition, and  polished  courtesy,  it  is  now  found  to  be  a 
more  easy  task  to  "  trample  on  the  Ilat "  than  to  refute 
the  head ;  and  hence  the  great  and  solemn  inquiry  after 
Religious  Truth,  upon  which  depends  the  eternal  sal- 
vation of  the  English  people,  has  been  transferred  from 
the  sanctuaries  of  learning,  and  the  Temples  of  the  Most 
High  to  all  the  turbulence  and  clamour  of  the  Market- 
place, and  all  the  unreasoning  prejudices  of  an  excited 
populace.  It  is,  in  my  mind,  a  poor  travesty  of  a  similar 
appeal  once  made  in  presence  of  the  World's  Redeemer 
by  a  well  known  judge,  who,  when  he  asked  "  what  is 
Truth  ?"  would  not  wait  to  receive  an  answer  from  the 
lips  of  Truth  himself,  but  transferred  the  decision  of  the 
case  to  an  infuriated  multitude,  who,  in  answer  to  his 
appeal  as  to  what  he  was  to  do  with  Christ,  with  loud 
shouts  demanded  his  crucifixion.  For  the  honour  of 
Christianity,  and  the  nineteenth  century,  I  am  ashamed 
to  add  with  sorrow,  that  the  conduct  of  the  merciful  but 
timid  Pagan  Judge  is  much  raised  in  our  esteem,  when 

•  "Apology''  of  Sir  Thomas  More. 


62 


LETTER  OP  TIIE  BISHOP  OP  HALIFAX. 


contrasted  witliHoine  recent  examples.  I  have  no  doubt, 
however,  that  the  "arbitriuin  popularis  aurie"  will,  at 
no  distant  period,  appropriately  reward  those  unwise 
statesmen  who  are  now  borne  along  so  smoothly  in 
its  treacherous  current. 

Come  what  will,  it  is  consoling  to  believe  that  the 
Catholics  of  the  British  Empire,  even  in  the  midst  of 
persecution  and  calumny,  will  always  continue  loyal  to 
their  sovereign,  charitable  to  their  fellow-subjects,  and 
faithful  to  their  God. 

Hoping  you  will  find  a  place  for  the  above  in  your  in- 
teresting columns,  believe  me  to  remain,  dear  sir,  very 
truly  yours, 

t  WILLIAM,  Bishop  of  Halifax. 

St.  Mary's,  Thursday,  I2th  Dec,  1850. 


■■I 


